Just as President Obama, during a speech about health care reform at a joint session of Congress Wednesday night, stated his new health care plan would not cover illegal immigrants, Joe Wilson did the unthinkable. “You lie!” he shouted at the President, anger spewing from his mouth and his gaze.
Honestly, it sounds fictional. It sounds like a bad political novel. Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina’s 2nd district has managed to catapult himself into the international spotlight by, as VP Joe Biden put it so eloquently, “demeaning the institution.” And that he did.
It takes guts to call out the President, especially when you are watching him give a speech firsthand. But being courageous, at the wrong time, has its consequences. Loudmouth Joe was immediately booed by hundreds of Democrats. Republicans lambasted the 5th term representative for being disrespectful and breaking Congress rules.
Wilson had to apologize immediately after, and though he didn’t get to say sorry face-to-face with the President, Obama accepted the apology. To me, these apologies mean little anyway. Anyone can say “sorry” after the fact, but it take someone of real integrity not to make the mistake in the first place. Or, in this case, someone with with half a brain.
Many of the more vocal republicans have been quite outspoken when it comes to the issue of the new health care plan giving benefits to illegal immigrants. Obama has said time and time again that it won’t, but, apparently for Loudmouth Joe and many others, that hasn’t been enough.
Sadly, because the health care document is more then 1,000 boring, boring pages, no one will ever read through it to find the truth. Or, we could just listen to the President.
Even if you choose not to, just don’t take a page out of Joe’s book. We don’t need another Joe in the spotlight. That plumber was enough.