Un-Civil discourse

A letter to the editor into today's AJC claimed that Rep. Joe Wilson's shouting out "You lie!" in the middle of President Obama's address to Congress last week was no big deal. After all, he said, Democrats have never been shy about saying that President Bush lied to Congress.

Let's put this in perspective.

(1). Joe Wilson made his accusation in a shouted interruption of the President of the United States while he was addressing a joint session of the Congress. In our government, there is no more august occasion, demanding decorum and respect for the office.

Calling geoge bush a liar in print, on the web, on TV newscasts, and on late night comedy shows is hardly comparable.

Wilson's excuse was that he got carried away by his emotions. Then I would say that he is unfit emotionally to be a United States Congressman if he has that little self-control. Thank god they had metal detectors; suppose he had had a gun and got carried away by his emotions?

(2). President Bush DID lie to Congress IN ORDER to sell them and the American people on his bogus case for invading Iraq, a country that was no immediate threat to us, had nothing to do with 9/11, and we now know did not have the weapons of mass destruction. And there is good evidence that he knew he was lying. The clever way he worded it "The British have said . . . " was his way of convincing us of what he knew not to be true, and doing it in a way that technically he was not lying. It was true that the British had said it.

It was also true that the British had said in private that the bush administration was determined to invade Iraq and that "intelligence was being fixed" around that.

IN CONTRAST: President Obama did not lie. Independent opinions of his plan have agreed. He said that his health care reform plan would not be available to illegal immigrants. That's when Wilson shouted "You lie!"

The Republicans have said it would -- but they base their "lie" charge on the fact that some illegal immigrants manage to get government services now, even though they're not supposed to. Therefore, Obama is lying to say they will not get health care in his plan, because they will find a way, even if it's not in the plan. They're saying there are not enough safe-guards in the plan to prevent this.

That's what they equate to Bush cooking up a spin on lies to get backing for his illegal invasion of a sovereign nation that was not an immediate threat to us?

Patheticly illogical . . . . And despicable.

But then, it's no surprise. That's the level of intelligence and lack of logic that has come to characterize the opposition to anything Obama does.

Ralph