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.