In all the hubbub over Joe Wilson's outburst, almost nobody seems to notice that Wilson's wasn't the ONLY outburst. I heard others that I couldn't readily identify. And Ryan Grim at HuffPo reported that a Republican member at one point said, "loudly enough to be heard by the press corps," "Read the bill!"
When Obama told the chamber that the "death panel" lie was, in fact, a lie, a Republican member said loudly enough to be heard in the press gallery, "Read the bill" -- a common refrain at August's astro-turfed town hall meetings.
Did that happen as Grim relates? If so the press is certainly content to sit on it, because as far as I can tell Grim's piece is the only place this is being reported.
But I did hear another outburst documented by Grim:
When Obama told the chamber that he had "no interest in putting insurance companies out of business," a Republican member responded with a loud, "Ha!"
Meanwhile other Republicans were holding up signs, while others were holding up what reportedly was a copy of a Republican health care bill.
So: Wilson was certainly not acting alone in attempting to disrupt the President's speech.
The question is, were these Republicans acting in concert?
All these tactics are straight out of Freedomworks' playbook for astro-turfing townhalls. And as we know, those tactics have been embraced by Republican leaders. I have trouble believing that some of these Republicans didn't go to this speech with the idea of using those same tactics to throw Obama off his stride and take attention away from the arguments supporting reform.
Well, they didn't throw Obama off his stride during the speech, but they sure as hell have succeeded in taking attention away from reform. And we have conveniently fallen right into their trap. Obama goes in front of the nation and finally--finally! makes a compelling case for healthcare reform, and 3/4 of the diaries on Kos relating to the speech are about Wilson's outburst, not to mention several posts by front-pagers including Kos himself.
Meanwhile the corporate media reports endlessly about the breach of decorum and apologies, with barely a word about the fact that Wilson was, in fact, lying when he called the President a liar.
I'm not saying don't push back. I'm all for getting in their faces, as some of you know. But the pushback must connect to the fact that Obama's plan does not provide benefits to undocumented aliens. That's why, imo, it's one thing to click on the ActBlue link to contribute to Wilson's opponent Rob Miller (did that, btw) but quite another to spend time bloviating about censure, as is currently being done in the top diary on the rec-list. Meteor Blades is right. We need to keep our eyes on the prize: health care reform.