It Wasn't So, Joe

President Carter repents -- or, rather, redacts.

Let's Not Lower Our Voices Quite Yet

Offering no evidence, President Carter says Rep. Joe Wilson is a racist.

"Starting Fires": Sermon for 15 Pentecost

The Letter of James teaches, "How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire." Think of the arsonist-set Station fire, which has consumed two lives and a quarter of the Angeles National Forest. Think too of the political firestorm unleashed by Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst during last week's joint session of Congress. Often enough, our tongues get ahead of our brains because our needs aren't being met in a given situation or relationship -- our need to be right, successful, secure, safe, or just needed. The Enneagram personality-type system, as interpreted by Fr. Richard Rohr, helps us understand that our greatest gifts and strengths (such as the willingness to battle for what's right) can also be our greatest weaknesses (such as the unwillingness to listen to others' perspectives). My Sunday sermon is here.

No Se Puede

E. J. Dionne says Rep. Wilson...didn't tell the truth:

For the record, Wilson's premise is itself untrue: The framers of the health care bill did all they could to make sure it wouldn't help illegal immigrants. Yes, a few might slip through the cracks and--horrors!-- get assistance. But the health reformers wrote language as tough as it could be to make sure this wouldn't happen, short of creating provisions so draconian that some who are here legally would also be denied coverage.

"You Lie!" Says Kanye West To VMA

MTV Shows

The power of Rep. Wilson's example spreads to the entertainment industry. When Beyonce, on whose behalf West interceded, won Video of the Year, she graciously called Taylor Swift back to the stage to give the speech he had interrupted when she won Best Female Video. Speaker Pelosi has demanded that he apologize on the floor of the House.

Joe Wilson And Second Manassas

At "Salon," Rich Benjamin says Rep. Wilson's rude outburst was actually the result of generations of pent-up white southern Republican racial nativist fear and resentment. Benjamin doesn't go all the back to the Civil War, but almost. If his critics make him a pin-up boy for everything they despise, and if the right retaliates by turning his '10 re-election bid into a national talk show funding opportunity, even more politicians and pundits will grasp the benefits of venting their civility-destroying self-righteousness.

Just Ask Sen. Sumner

Bill Handel, an LA radio talk show host with a reasonable center-left perspective, could only scare up one caller this afternoon who was willing to criticize Rep. Joe Wilson for calling the President a liar during a joint session of Congress. Everybody praised Wilson because they agree with him on health care reform, don't like President Obama, or some other combination of thoroughly utilitarian arguments. I wonder what Wilson's boosters think about the support Muntather al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who lobbed his loafers at President Bush last year, is still enjoying in the Arab world. Exactly the same argument: The means justified the moccasins. Al-Zaidi will be freed on Monday. Maybe he should run for Wilson's seat.

I can be as partisan as the next person, but a cogent defense of Wilson is impossible, even on the substance of his remarks. I believe the critique of the health care bill's provision denying government-funded coverage to illegal aliens is that it lacks enforcement teeth. What a surprise! How many times have legislatures, no matter which party holds sway, passed spending caps or no-deficit measures they have no means or intention of enforcing? I'll bet Wilson even voted for some of them. Basically, at one time or another, they're all liars (please forgive the fleeting misanthropic indulgence).

Second, unless we want to look foolish to our own people and the world, civility must reign during a joint session of Congress. The American head of state deserves the respect we afford to his or her office. Throw out Congress's carefully tended rules of procedure and civil discourse because you happen to disagree with what the President says, and you help ruin democracy.

Third, Wilson just gave permission to the still-to-be-self-appointed buffoon who will insult the next GOP President. On Handel's show today, I actually heard a guy justify what Wilson did because some of President Bush's critics may have secretly enjoyed the shoe incident. What are we, in kindergarten?

A Facebook reader of this post tells me that Bill Handel, having voted twice for George W. Bush, is center right, not center left. Since I don't listen to him very often, I shouldn't have tried to pigeonhole him. Sept. 12: I just realized that an alliterative flourish of which I was so proud, "the means justified the moccasins," makes no sense. "The purposes justified the pumps" would've been better. Or not. One thing about having almost no readers is that one can err in peace.

Wilsonian Principles

The President's health care speech pleases congressional centrists. Meanwhile, on the left and right, the VP and Speaker's head movement language spoke volumes after Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) called the President a liar during his speech, which he shouldn't have done, number one, because it was offensive, embarrassing, and demeaning to the dignity of the United States and, number two, because it will be used as an excuse when a Democratic legislator screams at a Republican President (or holds up a sign, wears a rude t-shirt, whatever). In this day and age, civility is all too easily forfeited to the imperative of big egos and mouths. As for Biden and Pelosi, they looked at each other (whaaa?), then joined Obama in glaring in Wilson's direction, then got out what looked like a seating chart like the principal and dean of students at a high school assembly. Perhaps a disadvantageous office reassignment is in Wilson's future.