I didn’t see the president’s speech on health care reform last night, because it fell right in the middle of the kids’ bedtime. I read about it afterwards. But I couldn’t believe this until I’d seen it myself.
It happened at 8:40 pm, just after the president vowed to lawmakers that his health-care reform proposals would not provide benefits to illegal immigrants. As millions of Americans watched from home, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouted at the president from his fifth-row seat: “You lie!”
Murmurs of “ooh” filled the stunned chamber. Nancy Pelosi’s chin dropped. Obama moved on to the next sentence in his speech, about how no federal money would be used to fund abortion. “Not true!” came another shout.
Apparently, we need a new rule: Congress is strictly for grown-ups only. If, in the future, we need to have a “grown-ups table” and a separate “children’s table” — so that the adults can hear what the president is actually saying, and the children can make all the noise they want and not bother anybody — so be it.
That may well necessary in the future, given the behavior exhibited by Republican “leadership” last night.
