Rep. Joe Wilson (R-Stubborn)
-Headline of the day-
"Pelosi agrees to plan to scold Rep. Wilson for 'You lie' outburst."
Oooooh! Now you're gonna get it, Joe!
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office has told reporters that Joe Wilson's outburst during the president's address to congress is going to earn him a time-out... Or something like that. "There was a violation of the rules of the House," said Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly. "It needs to be resolved by an apology or a resolution."
I thought he already issued an apology. Should he buy some Hallmark card from Walgreens? Because I don't think they sell those. Doesn't seem like there'd be much of a call for a "I'm sorry I called the president a liar during a joint session of congress" cards...
Ah, here it is. Reading down, I see that Wilson now has to apologize on the House floor. If he doesn't, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer will introduce a "resolution of disapproval." This is different from censure -- which is the official congressional wagging finger. Although, I'm not really all that clear how it's different. It just is.
Normally, I'd think this was stupid. The guy made an ass of himself and apologized, which ought to be punishment enough -- a Republican needs a crowbar to get "I'm sorry" out of their mouth. But Wilson's being a dick about it. He refuses to apologize on the House floor, because that'd be different from apologizing to the president and the speaker. Again, I'm not sure how, it just would be.
So Wilson is willing to stage a House showdown rather than make a meaningless and inconsequential gesture he's made twice before. I'm not sure why we should be dicking around with this stuff, when we've got healthcare reform to get through. I mean, creeping socialism isn't going to spread itself...
Oh wait. Now I get it. (The Hill)
-[Righteous] quote of the day-
"Who has done a better job of keeping the country safer - George Bush or Barack Obama? Well, as soon as it we make it past the morning of 9/11, then Obama will have officially kept us safer longer than George Bush did. It's empirical. You can't argue with it."
-Lefty pundit Cenk Uygur
I say we call it official. The only thing that happened today was a brainless Coast Guard drill. Everyone survived.
Obama wins. (Smirking Chimp, via reddit)
-Something new to freak out about-
Next week, Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler (NY), Tammy Baldwin (WI), and Jared Polis (CO) will begin destroying families by introducing legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA protects America from the Homosexual Menace by making the federal government pretend that people who are legally married aren't legally married -- if they're gay.
Expect Republicans to crap their pants. If the past is any indication, this will mean that the government will make you go get gay-married. Sarah Palin's going to start shrieking about "gay panels" and the religious right will have a stroke over it. FOX News will become as apoplectic as they will be apocalyptic.
The fun never stops. (Think Progress)
1 comments:
Congress needs to take a lesson from the British House of Commons. If it's going to have people shouting on the floor, then it needs to police them properly.
That means: if you step over the line in what you say, you have to stand up and apologise, nicely, right then and there. The whole business gets suspended until you either do that, or leave the room.
Note you don't apologise specifically to the person you insulted - you apologise to the Speaker and the House, because your crime was against them, not your target. That's necessary to prevent the whole thing degenerating into partisan schoolroom bickering.
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