Tag: joe wilson

Tweet of the Day, You’re On A BOAT, @jimgeraghty… edition.

…so stop scooping my post ideas, OK?

As you can see, this was in response to some dude or dudette on the Internet’s getting all bent out of shape because Jim noted that when Rep. Joe Wilson (SC) shouted “YOU LIE!” at Barack Obama’s claim that Obamacare would be extended to illegal immigrants, Joe Wilson turned out to be… correct; they’re talking about doing that. Which I was on the verge of looking up, except that Jim beat it to me. While on vacation, the so-and-so.

Ach, well. At least I got the Frank J Fleming interview in before he did.

#rsrh WaPo/Plame: Man Bites Dog.

I mean, I knew right from the start that the movie that they made about Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame was going to be errant nonsense, but it’s a bit of a shock for the Washington Post to use up valuable editorial space to declare shenanigans.  After casually eviscerating the central premise and main narration of the movie, the WaPo forthrightly – and very accurately – calls Joe Wilson a lying suckweasel (I paraphrase):

Hollywood has a habit of making movies about historical events without regard for the truth; “Fair Game” is just one more example. But the film’s reception illustrates a more troubling trend of political debates in Washington in which established facts are willfully ignored. Mr. Wilson claimed that he had proved that Mr. Bush deliberately twisted the truth about Iraq, and he was eagerly embraced by those who insist the former president lied the country into a war. Though it was long ago established that Mr. Wilson himself was not telling the truth – not about his mission to Niger and not about his wife – the myth endures. We’ll join the former president in hoping that future historians get it right.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) The truly tragic bit? I’m almost certain that there will be almost no explosions, automatic weapons fire combined with a car chase, and/or catsuits involved in the film.  That might have made the silly thing watchable.

Moe Lane

What is the sound of $2.5M flushing?

…this.

South Carolina Democratic candidate Rob Miller has apparently adopted Republicans’ “Fire Pelosi” mantra.

According to a report by The Associated Press, Miller — who is hoping to oust Rep. Joe Wilson (R) in the South Carolina 2nd district race — said Wednesday that he would not vote to keep Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as Speaker in the 112th Congress.

Via, of all things, @markos, who is upset that Democrats gave Miller 2.5 million dollars to retire his 2008 debt and lose again to Joe Wilson in 2010 (hint, Robbie: don’t go into the red this time); I would have posted this last night, except that it took me this long to stop laughing.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Joe Wilson for SC-02.  Not voting for Pelosi for Speaker, either.

#rsrh So. About this “You lie!” thing…

I understand that it was, well, accurate?

Recent news reports that Democratic leaders promised Hispanic Caucus members that provisions inserted in the healthcare to win the votes of others would be removed later suggest that South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R) charge that President Obama’s denial that the healthcare bill would cover illegal aliens was a lie was dead on.

The healthcare bill as passed and signed into law prohibits illegals from buying into the so-called healthcare exchanges that will be established under the law and denies even temporary legal immigrants access to Medicaid unless they’ve been here for five years. Hispanic Caucus leaders are now charging that the administration specifically promised to eliminate these and other restrictions and are vowing to hold the president and congressional Democratic leaders to that promise.

More on that promise here.  It certainly sounds as if Hispanic Caucus legislators were led to believe that they would have the access to exchanges resolved in illegal immigrants’ favor… which leads to the question, “When will people start apologizing to Joe Wilson?”

Ha! Yes, I know: I’m quite the comedian.

Joe Wilson should sponsor House version of Johanns Amendment.

Yesterday, the Senate surprisingly adopted the Johanns Amendment (which denies ACORN HUD/transportation funds), 83-7. Obviously, House Republicans will need to introduce (and presumably pass, in a similarly lopsided manner) their own version, in order to make it clear to the Democratic-controlled reconciliation committee that this is not to be reversed when they think that nobody’s looking. This amendment will need someone to formally offer it – and clearly the choice must be Rep. Joe Wilson (R, SC).

Discuss.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Ben Smith: Wilson wins?

Time:

The controversy over Republican Representative Joe Wilson’s shouting “You lie!” at the President over his claim that illegal immigrants wouldn’t benefit from health-care reform apparently sparked some reconsideration of the relevant language. “We really thought we’d resolved this question of people who are here illegally, but as we reflected on the President’s speech last night, we wanted to go back and drill down again,” said Senator Kent Conrad, one of the Democrats in the talks after a meeting Thursday morning. Later that afternoon, Baucus said the group would add a proof-of-citizenship requirement for participation in the new health exchange — a move likely to inflame the left.

Wilson wins, Ben.  Oddly, in much the same way that another particular dispute was won by THAT WOMAN.

See also Hot Air, Ace of Spades, Sister Toldjah, and –  for that special extra flavor of whiny Lefty exasperation, TPMDC:

But though Wilson’s allegation was false, and the political impact has been largely negative, Democratic leaders on the Senate Finance Committee seem to think it’s worth fixing the non-existent problem Wilson was complaining about.

Seldom does one see a sentence quite so at war with itself as this one is.

Moe Lane

PS: Yeah, kids: I saw the Democratic flash poll, and I saw that the current state of the potlatch is at, what, $750K at this point?  Alas, I also saw Wood & Sabato’s current estimate of the GOP’s likely gains next year (20 to 30, and Wilson’s not on their competitive races  list).  This just isn’t a cycle to topple a R+9 incumbent.  Particularly since none of the people currently at white-hot levels of hatred are going to remember his opponent’s name in two weeks.

Or possibly even one.

PPS: I tell a lie.  AMERICAblog is even whinier than TPMDC.

Crossposted to RedState.

Joe Wilson: sorry if you were offended when I called the President a liar.

Having caused a bit of a ruckus last night of a sort unmatched in incivility and depravity since… 2005, when Democrats booed the President at his State of the Union address… Representative Joe Wilson (R, SC) wants you to know that he is very sorry if any one was offended that he pointed out that the President is a liar:

“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the President’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.”

Notice that he didn’t say anything about a lack of accuracy – then again, as Legal Insurrection notes, this would be because Joe Wilson was being accurate when he called the President a liar: HR 3200 covers illegal immigrants, and every attempt to make it explicit that it wouldn’t has been blocked by Congressional Democrats.  No, it’s just that Joe Wilson recognizes that it was mean of him to wreck the President’s narrative that way by calling the President a liar.  And it was mean of him: as we saw last night, President Obama isn’t exactly what you’d call quick on his rhetorical feet when things don’t go his way.

As you might have guessed, I’m amused at the outrage shown to Joe Wilson‘s calling the President a liar by the professionally outraged: not only because it’s fairly provincial of them*, but because the outrage fairly clearly covers a certain uneasiness.  This is new for Republicans and conservatives, you see.  We don’t march.  We don’t gather for protests.  We don’t gather for protests in large numbers.  We don’t take time off to go to protests.  We don’t force the opposition to react to what we say.  We don’t interrupt.  We don’t push back when pushed.  And we don’t loudly call out people for their lies when they lie.  At least, we didn’t do all of that, on a regular basis – but we’re doing it now.  Change!

And Hope, too.

Moe Lane

*You should see what legislators in other countries get up to.  This was nothing.

Crossposted to RedState.