YOU LIE!

There's no way you didn't hear about this one. No real explanation necessary for what you are about to see. Just watch it.

So, Republican Congressman (Representative) Jim Wilson from South Carolina - yup, South Carolina again, the same state that brought you Jim DeMint and Mark Sanford - yelled "You lie" to the President during his speech on health care. Right in the middle of the speech. That was childish and disrespectful. What makes matters worse is that Wilson called the President a liar when he said that illegal immigrants would not be receiving free health care under the new plan. The proposed legislation prohibits free health care for illegal immigrants and may instead require them to purchase health care although they are not American citizens. So by calling President Obama a liar, Wilson proved a liar himself. Wow. In fairness, many conservatives do argue that illegal immigrants may receive sizable government subsidies which will make it quite easy for them to purchase the health care. That's different from free health care for those without citizenship, and any national politician should be more dedicated to drafting and compromising on proposed legislation than he is to making outbursts in the middle of prepared speeches.
I would stop there, but I cannot. Wilson made one of those apologies that politicians are becoming so known for. In my opinion, these types of apologies are worse than the offenses that make them necessary as they are an insult to the intelligence of the American people. He knew that he believed what he said and meant every word of it. So why apologize? Either stand by your actions or shut up and control yourself. There's nothing I find quite as stupid as after-the-fact restraint. He went even further than that, however. He tried to defend himself. Those who are truly repentant for what they have done do not try to defend their actions. Instead, they accept responsibility for them and dedicate themselves to learning and growing and refusing to ever make such actions again. Nevertheless, here's Ol' Joe.

First of all, did anyone else notice that he said he got a call from the leadership asking him to apologize to the President? If that's his only reason for apologizing (and it is certainly the only reason he cited), it's nowhere near good enough and further proves my point that these types of apologies are insincere and insulting. He got shaky at the end when asked about the fact that his Twitter account seemed to indicate that this was a premeditated outburst, as well. He then says that his response was spontaneous and was triggered by President Obama's remark that illegal immigrants would not be covered under the new health care plan. Wilson suggests that this angered him because of two bills that had been proposed where illegal immigrants would receive coverage. He said just before that, though, that both of these bills were voted down. Wouldn't that fact suggest that there was no need for his outburst because the bills that caused it were no longer on the table? Seriously, after all the credit that President Obama gave to Republicans (especially John McCan) and the proposals, ideas, and issues that they had contributed to this - wouldn't you think that if HE (assuming that he was responsible for including the provision about illegal immigrants, which he may not have been and probably was not) had at one time planned to cover illegal immigrants, he had received the message from the GOP and changed his mind?
To sum things up, I will say what I said to a friend of mine earlier this week. If I had been president at the time, I more than likely would have challenged Wilson to a charity boxing match on the front lawn of the White House so that I could get my retaliatory jabs in with no guilt. I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, too. Freedom of speech - when exercised in the middle of my speech - comes at the steep cost of a few fists to the face. Otherwise, wait your turn.