Breach of Decorum or a Necessary Response to a Pack of Lies

Last night President Obama addressed congress in a nationally televised speech in order to pitch his plan for the government to take over health care. During the speech, Rep. Joe Wilson * (R-SC) couldn't take the level of dishonesty displayed by the president and yelled out "You lie" after Obama lied in claiming his plan would not include health coverage for illegal aliens.

The easy response to this is to say that obviously the congressman was out of line. In fact, Wilson as much as admitted so in his apology. No matter who is president some in the audience will disagree with his positions. It was wrong for Sen. Ted Kennedy to be shaking his head saying "no, no, no" when President Bush was addressing congress regarding the situation in Iraq.

However, the nature of this presidents style make the desire to respond understandable. During his speech, Obama made many comments basically accusing opponents of government controlled health care of dishonesty. I hope Wilson was not the only representative that was incensed by Obama's comments.

Bottom line: While the desire to immediately respond to Obama's lies is understandable, acting on that desire is inappropriate. Wilson would have been better served by holding a press conference refuting Obama's accusations point by point. Leave the immaturity to the Democrats. Not only is it the right thing to respect the office of the presidency (regardless of the occupant), but the fact remains that while the press will give a pass to Democrats over poor decorum you can be sure that a lack of civility by a Republican will be quickly reported and denounced.

*
For clarification, this congressman is not Lying Joe Wilson. I assume they are not even related.