Joe Wilson’s War: And what about the other side? Well, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson didn’t help the GOP’s cause one bit. Indeed, the most effective part of Obama’s speech last night might not have been what he said — but rather what Wilson yelled: “You lie.” It could be an incredibly important moment for the president and the congressional Dem leadership because it does a couple of things: 1) paint a picture of the Republicans as ornery and hard to work with, and 2) remind conservative Democrats that they may not want to line up with folks like Joe Wilson when casting votes. Let’s be honest: Wilson did more to undermine the GOP’s efforts to come across as reasonable opposition as anything any conservative cable host has done in the past few months. Remember how conservatives were able to turn Cindy Sheehan into someone very difficult for the anti-war Democrats in Congress to support during the Bush years? Well, Wilson could end up providing that kind of symbolism. In short, he gave voice — literally — to the president’s attempts to paint some of his opponents as shrill.
And then there’s a second item:
A Verbal Sucker Punch: Wilson apologized last night in a statement (“I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility”) and in a call to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. But the damage was done and it may take a long time to repair. It was a sad day in Washington that polarization has gotten so bad that a member of Congress thinks it’s appropriate to shout down the president. So what should Wilson’s punishment be? After all, it was a verbal sucker punch, and we just saw one football player get suspended for the year for a sucker punch. By the way, the DCCC tells First Read that in the eight hours since Wilson’s outburst, his Democratic opponent in 2010, former Marine Rob Miller, has received nearly 3,000 individual grassroots contributions, raising about $100,000.
Now I basically agree that Wilson’s outburst was not helpful last night. He was right to apologize and he should probably get an official rebuke of some kind as well. But First Read is really getting under my skin in the way they seem to be guiding the news with Olbermannesque wishful thinking as opposed to analysis. Is Joe Wilson really comparable to Cindy Sheehan? When did she ever apologize for an outburst? Why not mention that Democrats booed and hissed Bush at the 2005 SOTU? I know the folks at The Today Show and MSNBC think Wilson is the big story, but one gets the sense that they want it to be the big story in the hope that it will help Obama. That’s certainly the odor that comes off First Read’s supposedly objective analysis.