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Should Joe Wilson, on pain of admonishment, apologize on the floor of the House? I say yes.

That's the proposal. And I say yes, but with an important condition. What Wilson did was to appropriate a solemn occasion ? a presidential address to a joint session of Congress ? to insert his own partisan political statement. He should apologize, but what I want in addition is an apology for the masses of presidential supporters who repeatedly interrupted the speech with partisan applause, cheering, and standing ovations.

Either it is a solemn occasion not to be interrupted by partisan distractions or it is not. As a citizen TV-watcher, I was willing to listen to the President lay out his argument for us, but I would not watch a political rally. The Democrats who took advantage of the occasion to cheer the President on created an atmosphere that made Joe Wilson's 2 syllables of dissent a welcome pushback. If they had been decorous throughout, what Wilson did would have been appalling. But his behavior seen apart from that context is unacceptable. Let him then apologize, if all the others who wrecked the solemnity also apologize, and let us have future Presidents' visits to Congress be polite, respectful affairs.

If that can't be done, then let the President drop the pomposity and submit to Question Time:

According to the article linked above, Wilson is accused of violating House rules:

House rules and precedents provide substantial guidance on how a House member can and cannot refer to the president while speaking on the floor, and the guidelines state that it has been found impermissible to call the president a liar. The House was in formal session at the time of the speech.

This sort of viewpoint discrimination is unAmerican. Can members yell out "You're the One" and "I love you, Barack" and "Amen!"? It's fine to have rules, but I want to attack them for having a rule like that.

It has been found impermissible to call the president a liar.

What a crazy thing to say! Step up and defend it if you dare.

Full post as published by Althouse on September 12, 2009 (boomark / email).