It's official: by a 240-179 tally (with 5 present votes), the House of Representatives has approved a resolution of disapproval of Congressman Joe Wilson's childish breach of decorum last Wednesday.
Earlier, House Democrats had offered Wilson a deal under which he would have publicly apologized on the floor of the House in lieu of the resolution, but Wilson rejected the offer.
From Congress Matters, here's the text of the resolution:
Whereas on September 9, 2009, during the joint session of Congress convened pursuant to House Concurrent Resolution 179, the President of the United States, speaking at the invitation of the House and Senate, had his remarks interrupted by the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson; and Whereas the conduct of the Representative from South Carolina was a breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session, to the discredit of the House: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives disapproves of the behavior of the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson, during the joint session of Congress held on September 9, 2009.
Reasonable, right? And Wilson could have made it go away by simply apologizing to the House. But he couldn't bring himself to apologize publicly, and now he's paid the price.
The silver lining for Wilson is that nearly all Republicans supported his refusal to apologize...which raises the question: if Republicans can't even apologize when they make a mistake, how in the world can we be serious about trying to achieve bipartisan compromise with them?