The Other Joe Wilson

There's talk in Congress about censuring Representative Joe Wilson of SC for shouting "You lie!" at President Obama during the President's address to Congress. He shouldn't be censured. It's his right to shout, it's his right to be rude, it's his right to be wrong about the facts.

As far as I'm concerned this is just another instance which proves how much bigger the Republicans' cojones are. Democrats sat through years of Bush twaddle without ever shouting "You lie!," when levels of executive branch mendacity achieved new heights. See what politeness and civility hath wrought? Because so few elected Democratic representatives would challenge the obvious bullshit pouring out of the White House post-9/11 we ended up in a proto-fascist America where torture is OK and you can disappear human beings without charges, where the government can listen to your phone calls and read your emails with no legal basis, and where we have more socialism for the rich and free market doctrine for the rest of us. Aside from the Code Pink gals and a few million people raising hell in the streets, there wasn't anyone to stand up and say "You lie!"

Joe Wilson is wrong, he's a jerk, and he's likely racist. But he has cojones to stand up and scream out when what his funders pay him to believe is challenged by authority. Joe Wilson speaks corporate propaganda truths to government power, but at least he said what he was paid to think is true by the insurance lobby. Democrats in the minorty coughed politely into their lapels, refused at times to applaud, and feared giving offense. And now that they have overwhelming majorities in Congress they still can't get things done.