South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson is digging himself a hole. A really big hole. He says that he won't apologize to his colleagues for shouting "You Lie" at President Barack Obama. He thinks that his apology directly tot he president was enough.
The problem with that thinking? He does owe the House of Representatives, an American institution and a national symbol of honor and respect, an apology.
Wilson's appearance on Fox News Sunday yesterday has drawn plenty of attention.
The South Carolina Republican left little doubt he will reject House Democratic leaders’ demand that he stand on the floor and apologize to other lawmakers for his "You lie!" shout during Obama’s address to Congress last week.
"I am not going to apologize again," Wilson said. "I believe the American people know I’m a civil person. I respect the institution of the House. I have apologized to the president. I believe that should be enough."
Wilson issued a hard-hitting statement after the news program.
"The American people are fed up with the political games in Washington," he said. "I refuse to participate in an effort to divert our attention away from the task at hand of reforming health insurance and creating new jobs. Having apologized on Wednesday to the White House, we agreed that we must move forward in a civil manner to do the work the American people have sent us here to do."
Wilson added: "Health insurance reform is too important to take a backseat to political partisanship."
Apologizing directly to the President was Wilson's first priority. No matter what your feelings are about what a sitting president is saying, you don't yell out. I know that's tough for some conservatives and Republicans these days, but if you are a member of the House of Representatives, you should not do it. The phrase "respectfully disagree" comes to mind. If you respectfully disagree, keep your mouth shut and use the multiple mediums offered to a member of Congress to try and take on the president for something he said. There is no reason to yell and interrupt his speech.
But Wilson also owes the House an apology. There are rules in D.C. There are rules in Congress. There is a certain level of civility expected of a member of Congress. There are rules of decorum. The reasons those rules exist is to avoid behavior like Wilson's. His "You Lie" shout was on national television. It is not like he did this and the only network that caught it was C-SPAN during a floor speech. This was the President of the United States speaking and he couldn't keep himself cool. So he shouted "You Lie."
How classy.
In perhaps the line of this whole fiasco, this is what Wilson said when asked if race played a role in his disruption at the President's speech:
Asked by Wallace whether race underlay his outburst, Wilson, 62, responded, "No, no, I respect the president."
(Emphasis mine.)
You shout "You Lie" during the president's speech and you have the audacity to say that you "respect" the president? That is insulting.
He is now (of course) turning this on the Democrats for making this political. There might be a political element to it, but the House Democrats aren't totally at fault for that. After all, it was Wilson (a Republican) who decided to shout out at the President (a Democrat) for something Wilson continued to claim was in a health care reform bill, but actually wasn't.
The reality is that if a Democrat did this, the Republicans in the House would be doing the same thing that the Democrats are doing now. Wilson would be better served apologizing, since it's the right thing to do anyway. He needs to apologize not to the House Democrats, but for flouting the rules of decorum and for disrespecting the institution that is the House of Representatives and Congress.