Joe Wilson, heckler
Sep. 10th, 2009 07:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacIt wasn't long ago that Republicans were insisting that Americans had to show deference and respect to the President, because he is the President. That was not entirely new - Harry Truman had had to insist on respect for the office, in the face of people who couldn't believe that a Missouri haberdasher (funny how a job he'd held for only two years was taken to define his entire career) was in the seat of the mighty FDR - but the recent practitioners took it to North Korean levels of worshipful obsequiousness. There were even suggestions that all the people had to follow the President's orders, because he is the Commander-in-Chief. Actually, he's only Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military forces. If you're not in the military, he's not your commander. You could look it up.
Even at the time, I wondered how many of these people applied that to Bill Clinton when he was the President. But new lows are always within reach. So far as I know, last night's outburst by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) was the first time a President had been heckled during a speech to a session of Congress.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wordweaverlynn had the best response.
On the other hand, let's not have the fluttering vapors over this. So far as I know, this was also the first time a President had called his detractors' chief talking point "a lie, plain and simple" in a speech to Congress, which he did just a few seconds earlier. Never mind that they were probably both right: there are no "death panels," and unless we demand that patients produce their passports before receiving medical services, we will perforce be treating illegal immigrants (gasp, horror; after all, our legal citizens cannot possibly catch communicable diseases from illegal immigrants, so there is no justification for treating them).
Nor was Wilson's outburst the first, or the worst, example of misbehavior by a representative from the great, and greatly obstreperous, state of South Carolina in the halls of Congress. Again it waswordweaverlynn who reminded us that in 1902, a Senator from South Carolina with the dignified nickname of "Pitchfork Ben" socked his colleague in the jaw in response to being called a liar. And I haven't forgotten that in 1856, a South Carolina congressman was so incensed at a northern Senator's speech comparing the allure of slavery to a prostitute that he walked over to the Senate chamber and walloped the man with a cane so hard that the Senator was out of the chamber in convalescence for three years.
While the North considered Charles Sumner a martyr (he was re-elected in absentia), the South treated Preston Brooks as a hero (he was also re-elected). At least Joe Wilson's leaders have the courtesy to be embarrassed by his behavior.
One more thing. Speaking of Joes, remember Joe the Plumber? Remember how it wasn't enough to point out that McCain's talking points about Joe were nonsense and that Joe himself was an ignorant blowhard and not even a qualified plumber? No, remember how critics had to think they were putting some sort of icing on the cake by claiming, ridiculously, that he somehow wasn't entitled to use the nickname "Joe" because his legal first name was Samuel, and Joseph was only his middle name?
Well, guess what. Joe Wilson's legal name isn't Joe AT ALL. His first name, it turns out, is Addison. (And here's another, better-known, Republican in Congress whose unused first name is Addison.) Oh, based on the Joe the Plumber episode, I expect to hear a lot of righteous indignation over this.
Even at the time, I wondered how many of these people applied that to Bill Clinton when he was the President. But new lows are always within reach. So far as I know, last night's outburst by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) was the first time a President had been heckled during a speech to a session of Congress.
wordweaverlynn had the best response.On the other hand, let's not have the fluttering vapors over this. So far as I know, this was also the first time a President had called his detractors' chief talking point "a lie, plain and simple" in a speech to Congress, which he did just a few seconds earlier. Never mind that they were probably both right: there are no "death panels," and unless we demand that patients produce their passports before receiving medical services, we will perforce be treating illegal immigrants (gasp, horror; after all, our legal citizens cannot possibly catch communicable diseases from illegal immigrants, so there is no justification for treating them).
Nor was Wilson's outburst the first, or the worst, example of misbehavior by a representative from the great, and greatly obstreperous, state of South Carolina in the halls of Congress. Again it was
wordweaverlynn who reminded us that in 1902, a Senator from South Carolina with the dignified nickname of "Pitchfork Ben" socked his colleague in the jaw in response to being called a liar. And I haven't forgotten that in 1856, a South Carolina congressman was so incensed at a northern Senator's speech comparing the allure of slavery to a prostitute that he walked over to the Senate chamber and walloped the man with a cane so hard that the Senator was out of the chamber in convalescence for three years.While the North considered Charles Sumner a martyr (he was re-elected in absentia), the South treated Preston Brooks as a hero (he was also re-elected). At least Joe Wilson's leaders have the courtesy to be embarrassed by his behavior.
One more thing. Speaking of Joes, remember Joe the Plumber? Remember how it wasn't enough to point out that McCain's talking points about Joe were nonsense and that Joe himself was an ignorant blowhard and not even a qualified plumber? No, remember how critics had to think they were putting some sort of icing on the cake by claiming, ridiculously, that he somehow wasn't entitled to use the nickname "Joe" because his legal first name was Samuel, and Joseph was only his middle name?
Well, guess what. Joe Wilson's legal name isn't Joe AT ALL. His first name, it turns out, is Addison. (And here's another, better-known, Republican in Congress whose unused first name is Addison.) Oh, based on the Joe the Plumber episode, I expect to hear a lot of righteous indignation over this.
