Dana Milbank talks about what happened on and off the House floor after Joe Wilson heckled the President last night:
It happened at 8:40 pm, just after the president vowed to lawmakers that his health-care reform proposals would not provide benefits to illegal immigrants. As millions of Americans watched from home, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouted at the president from his fifth-row seat: “You lie!”
Murmurs of “ooh” filled the stunned chamber. Nancy Pelosi’s chin dropped. Obama moved on to the next sentence in his speech, about how no federal money would be used to fund abortion. “Not true!” came another shout.
The national debate, already raw for years, had coarsened over the summer as town hall meetings across the country dissolved into protests about “death panels” and granny-killing. Guns were brought to Obama appearances. A pastor in Arizona said he was praying for Obama to die.
But even by that standard, there was something appalling about the display on the House floor for what was supposed to be a sacred ritual of American democracy: the nation watching while Cabinet members, lawmakers from both chambers and the diplomatic corps assembled.
Wilson was only the most flagrant. There was booing from House Republicans when the president caricatured a conservative argument by saying they would “leave individuals to buy health insurance on their own.” They hissed when he protested their “scare tactics.” They grumbled as they do in Britain’s House of Commons when Obama spoke of the “blizzard of charges and countercharges.”
When he asserted that “nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have,” there was scoffing and outright laughter on the GOP side. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Tex.) shook his head in disbelief. Several Republicans shouted “What plan?” and Rep. Louis Gohmert (Tex.) waved at Obama a handwritten poster he made on a letter-size piece of paper: “WHAT PLAN?” Gohmert then took that down and replaced it with another handmade poster that said “WHAT BILL?”
And then, it got worse:
Toward the end of Obama’s speech, the text of which was handed out before the congressman’s outburst, was a fitting rebuke of the sort of behavior Wilson had just exhibited. When “we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter,” Obama said, “we don’t merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.”
As Obama spoke these words, Wilson twiddled his thumbs, then took his BlackBerry from its holster to consult it yet again. The speech ended, and, as his colleagues applauded, Wilson beat a hasty retreat.
An incensed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel went up to GOP Reps. Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Paul Ryan (Wis.) to complain about the outburst. “No president has ever had that happen,” Emanuel said. “My advice is he apologize immediately. You know my number.”
And, of course, Wilson did apologize, but not before going down as displaying perhaps the worst behavior on the House floor since the days of Preston Brooks.
September 10th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
IMHO, the real outrage in last night’s spectacle was the “sacred ritual of American democracy”. Since when do we treat presidential speeches like proclamations of divine monarchs?
September 10th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Eric, your comment doesn’t make any sense to me, could you please explain it?
September 10th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
As far as I can tell, Milbank never expended as much ink reporting on the similar behavior of Democrats in response to GWB’s speeches. More advocacy journalism from the WaPo.
September 10th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
It’s one thing to disagree, its another to be completely disrespectful, and yes, it’s just as disgusting when it comes from the Dems as it does when it comes from Republicans. The one does not justify the other.
September 10th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I seem to recall a lot of laughing when a former president of ours had shoes thrown at him. And very little outrage about someone severely disrespecting the president. Not that such a thing in any way justifies Joe Wilson’s behavior, but pundits and reporters have been trying to paint their outrage as non-partisan and I call bullshit on that point.
September 10th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
That didn’t happen in the House chamber
It didn’t even happen in the United States
September 11th, 2009 at 6:43 am
Ummm… The guy that threw the shoe at Bush got prison time in Iraq.
September 11th, 2009 at 9:10 am
It doesn’t matter where it happened or what happened to the guy. I’m talking about media reaction. Do you remember anyone in the media being upset by the incident or declaring that people should respect the president even if they don’t agree with him?
September 11th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Umm, he went to jail. What more do you want ?
And my point is that there’s a difference between what a foreign journalist does in a foreign country and what a Congressman does on the House Floor during a join address.
September 11th, 2009 at 11:35 am
You’re ignoring my point. Whether he went to jail or not has nothing to do with journalistic reaction. Respect for the president is something new in the media world since we’ve gotten a new president. That’s all I’m saying.
September 11th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Well, I’ll grant you that to some extent.
To be honest, though, having a shoe thrown isn’t that out of the ordinary for foreign trips. Back in 1958, Nixon nearly got seriously hurt by protesters in Caracas, Venezuela
September 11th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
From what I’ve heard having a shoe thrown at you is a sign of extreme contempt.
September 11th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
It is but to be honest by December 2008 most Americans held GWB in extreme contempt as well