We have the perfect example of this thread. Last night Congressman Joe Wilson showed balls (a lack of judgment maybe) but it took balls to stand up in front of the nation and call the President, what he is, a liar. His immediate apology made him a pussy. Both terms referring to attitude, not gender organs.

Wilson? I think his outburst betrayed a lack of self-control more than anything else. It certainly wasn't an action born of courage or fortitude. It was foolish, unplanned, and counter to Wilson's own political interests and those of his party. It also undermined the House as an institution, and served as a poor example to people everywhere of civilized behavior. The House is not a "Saturday Night Live" set.

Really?
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/ ... union.html

I would agree. You do not, as a House member, need to go down to that level of crudeness or lack of decorum to make a point.

Indeed. My assumption would be that he caught hell from the senior leadership in his party; those sorts of outbursts tend to undermine behind-the-scenes negotiations sometimes, and generally make the party look bad...

I wouldn't be so quick to cast negative judgement on Wilson. His numbers are up and he's raised over $200k since his little outburst of truth.

Doesn't make it right, though. I'm not taking issue with the issue, just the method of presentation. We've had a sense of decorum and civility in our government since the founding days that other nations lack. We should try to maintain it.

-Mark

I think I would rather see more truth and vocal dissent than two-faced nodding heads and back room hypocritical deals.

This was a nice civil way to demonstrate during the President's speech:

Let me demonstrate a system WITHOUT civility:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngMs_4I1__o

Tell that to Nancy Pelosi and P*BO.



Ditto, the gloves are off. If we don't fight this dissent of the constitution now, I fear we will loose our identity as Americans.

Sometimes turning the other cheek only leads to a sore face.

read your history. His outburst is very mild in context of history.

<----Poli. Sci degree. I'll talk history all day long.

Our founding fathers didn't have to be leaders on CSPAN and the major networks.

So let me ask you this. Exactly WHAT good does it do our cause to have a GOP rep yell at the President during a nationally televised address?

You think Wilson's fundraising is great? Yeah, wait until you see what the Democrats do with this during the next election cycle. That clip is gonna run over, and over, and over. He just gave them Christmas early this year.

Is nobody thinking past immediate gratification these days? We've got a midterm election coming up, with a HORRIBLY unfriendly Congress, a very liberal state leg, and people still think making a useless loud point is a fucking good idea?

Pick your battles wisely, or we're gonna lose the war.

-Mark

The news reports last night (if you believe that kind of thing) said that both candidates have raised about the same ammount since the outburst. Thet would be about $1 million each, so financially it's a wash!

FWIW My opinion is that the Republicans are far too mild mannered when compared to the Dems and if the only way they can get air time is to interrupt BHOs speech, I say have at it! Then again, I quite like the give and take (including the jeers and jokes) of the Commons!