Politico----
Tensions remain after Joe Wilson apology
(Pres. Obama accepts Rep. Joe Wilson's apology, however US House Dems say they want Wilson to apologize on the floor, before Congress.)
(SC Rep. Joe Wilson's stupid, disruptive "You Lie!" outburst during Pres. Obama's recent Health Care Reform address to Congress last Wednesday night.)
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) says he’s done apologizing for his outburst during President Barack Obama’s prime-time speech Wednesday, but two House Democratic leaders are calling for a formal reprimand if Wilson continues to refuse to make a public statement of contrition on the House floor.
Wilson told reporters Thursday that at the request of GOP leaders he called White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday night to apologize for shouting “You lie!” after Obama said illegal immigrants would not get insurance coverage through health care reform. But Wilson said he planned no further statement and suggested his error was more one of protocol than a poor choice of words.
“My statement to Rahm Emanuel was a general apology to anyone and everyone about speaking out of turn. Period,” a nervous, but defiant Wilson told POLITICO.
Democrats said a House vote was delayed Thursday so Wilson could apologize on the House floor. GOP aides also said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had asked Wilson to make such a statement. But none took place.
The debate over Wilson’s punishment seems likely to carry into next week, an outcome which will delight many Democrats by keeping a media spotlight on what they view as a pattern of offensive behavior by opponents of Obama’s health reform efforts, now symbolized by Wilson.
Although both Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it was time to move past the episode, both Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said they want Wilson to go to the well of the House and do penance for his breach of decorum.
“We invite the president of the United States to come and address a joint session of Congress, and a member of the House ... does something that in the 29 years I haven’t seen,” said Hoyer. “I think it’s something that needs to be dealt with.”
Clyburn, the dean of the South Carolina delegation, was even more forceful in his denunciation of Wilson’s comments. He said in an interview that he repeatedly asked Wilson to apologize during a conversation the two had Thursday morning, but Wilson refused.
Clyburn said he would support a resolution reprimanding Wilson, or another punishment called a “resolution of disapproval,” unless the South Carolina Republican took some further step to defuse the majority’s anger. “I said to him that the proper thing to do would be go to the well [of the House] to apologize to his colleagues,” Clyburn said.
Otherwise, he cautioned Wilson that “there are more than 218 votes on my side” for some kind of sanction against him. “He has no remorse whatsoever. So his words have very little meaning,” Clyburn complained on MSNBC.
Obama sought to rise above the fray Thursday, declaring that he had accepted the conservative congressman’s apology. “I’m a big believer that we all make mistakes. He apologized quickly and without equivocation, and I’m appreciative of that,” Obama said in response to questions at a Cabinet meeting.
At his daily briefing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs seemed to downplay the idea of censure. “We take Congressman Wilson at his word that he apologizes for an outburst that he regrets,” Gibbs said, adding that Americans would rather see Obama and Congress focusing on health care “rather than debating the back and forth of the apology.”
Pelosi took the same approach. “I’m on to health care reform,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference. “I’m not going to discuss Joe Wilson,” she said. “I think his action spoke for itself. He has apologized. He will figure out what is appropriate for him to do.”
Earlier Thursday, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) had also called Wilson’s apology insufficient and said he should face a formal sanction. But Gibbs said the White House considered the matter closed. “I think the story largely goes away,” he said.
If it does, it will be despite the efforts of groups like MoveOn.org and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which were blasting e-mailing supporters yesterday in an effort to raise money and foment outrage over Wilson’s remarks.
“Stand against Joe Wilson’s unacceptable outburst,” the DCCC wrote in a message it urged backers to retweet on Twitter. “Calling the President of the United States a liar in front of the nation is a new low even for House Republicans.”
The DCCC said that Rob Miller, a Democrat and Iraq war veteran planning to challenge Wilson next fall, had scored more than $350,000 in online donations and pledges after the incumbent’s high-profile exclamation Wednesday.
Democratic analysts said the controversy provoked by Wilson had drowned out the GOP’s substantive criticism of Obama’s health plan and focused attention on the party’s obstructionist tactics.
“The White House has handled it beautifully,” said Democratic consultant Steve McMahon.
“Obama accepted the apology, but Joe Wilson’s behavior is a metaphor for the Republican Congress and many of those who participate in town hall meetings who are loud, ill-informed and not particularly persuasive to most people.”
Republicans spent much of their day either defending Wilson or refusing to comment on the controversy, although a number of GOP members complained privately that the episode had distracted from their substantive attacks on Obama’s health reform proposal.“This is not something we wanted to spend the day talking about,” said a GOP lawmaker close to Boehner.
Wilson, for his part, continued to press the issue that prompted his outburst — his view that Democratic legislation would give health care benefits to illegal aliens. There are provisions in the Democratic legislation that would deny federal insurance subsidies to illegal aliens, but Republicans say that the bills would not bar illegal immigrants from participation in new health insurance exchanges and that there are inadequate safeguards to keep aliens from signing up.
“The Congressional Research Service has indicated that indeed the bills that are before Congress would include illegal aliens. I think this is wrong,” Wilson said. “People who have come to our country and violated laws, we should not be providing full health care services [to them].”
While not defending Wilson’s tactics, Boehner and other Republicans yesterday echoed Wilson’s assertion that illegal immigrants would get new coverage under Democratic plans.
Boehner said it was “pretty clear” that illegal aliens could buy insurance through exchanges set up under one House bill. And conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh spoke for many conservatives who cheered Wilson’s confrontational approach and derided fellow Republicans for abandoning him.
“One of the things that’s really irritated me all morning and last night was listening to Republicans, even after Wilson had apologized — and I wish he had not. ... members of his own party were all over television denigrating him,” Limbaugh said on his program Thursday.
“We are in the midst of an administration that is trying to tear down the institutions and traditions that have made this country great. He is lying, President Obama is, from the moment he opens his mouth until he ends the speech. I was shouting, ‘You’re lying,’ throughout the speech at the television,” Limbaugh said. “Joe Wilson simply articulated what millions of Americans were saying.”
View Larger Map
Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Google Maps
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment