Tuesday, September 15, 2009

You lie!

For what it's worth, I have a really hard time getting fired up about the punishment of Rep. Joe Wilson. Yes, he violated decorum when he called the president a liar. Yes, it was rude. Sure, such behavior should be discouraged.

But I just don't get why the Beltway establishment is so dead set on setting clear standards for decorum while so lax about things like lawbreaking. Really, mainstream journalists and congressional leaders are squeamish about holding Bush administration officials accountable for authorizing torture and warrantless wiretapping, but they're gung ho about punishing a breach of manners.

I'm all for politeness, but it strikes me as a pretty low-order priority for government.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent point. Yeah, truth commissions are just CRAZY, but let's make a law to punish the idiot from South Carolina.

ON the other hand, just letting it go also seems to set a bad precedent. It was pretty out there for the particular setting, from what I understand.

-NW

Eric Rubin said...

if they did nothing, all the dem supporters would call them weak. if they rebuke him, all the gop supporters call them petty. lose lose situation for the dems in how to handle this situation. if the roles were reversed and barbara lee screamed you lie when GWB said their were WMDs, she would be tarred and feathered and called unamerican and a communist. all the dems are doing to joe is to publicly hold a vote saying that he is a major asshole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rnK6HW-Pvs&feature=related