Democrats slap Wilson; Republicans accuse Democrats of hypocrisy

The US House voted this afternoon to rebuke Representative Joe Wilson with a resolution of "disapproval" for his outburst against President Obama last week.

Wilson quickly apologized to Obama for yelling "You lie!" at the president when he told Congress that illegal immigrants would not benefit from his health care plan. But the South Carolina Republican steadfastly refused to say he's sorry on the House floor, as many Democrats demanded.

The resolution of disapproval -- approved 240-179 on a largely party line vote -- represents the least harsh discipline that the House can mete out to one of its members, but it's the first time Congress has admonished a member for behavior during a presidential speech.

"Whereas on September 9, 2009, during the joint session of Congress convened pursuant to House Concurrent Resolution 179, the President of the United States, speaking at the invitation of the House and Senate, had his remarks interrupted by the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson; and whereas the conduct of the Representative from South Carolina was a breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session, to the discredit of the House," the resolution says. "Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the House of Representatives disapproves of the behavior of the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson, during the joint session of Congress held on September 9, 2009."

After the resolution was read, Wilson took to the House floor -- not to apologize -- but to criticize the Democratic health care bills and to say the resolution was unnecessary.

"It is time to move forward," he said.

Representative John Boehner, the top House Republican, defended Wilson, saying that the congressman had already apologized, that he was a "decent human being," and that much worse conduct had gone unpunished.

The resolution is a partisan "witch hunt" and would set a terrible precedent, Boehner said.

But Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 House Democrat and a leading member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said the resolution was not about partisan politics, but about "reprehensible conduct."

Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus have suggested that race was a factor in Wilson's outburst.

But Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts said he would vote against the resolution. "I think it's bad precedent to put us in charge of deciding whether people act like jerks. I don't have time to monitor everyone's civility," he said, according to the Associated Press.

UPDATE: Frank ended up voting "present."

Among other New England representatives, all voted to rebuke Wilson, except for William Delahunt of Massachusetts and Paul Hodes of New Hampshire, who voted no. Carol Shea-Porter also voted present, and Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts did not vote.

Bill Burton, the deputy White House press secretary, sidestepped a question about the resolution today.

"That's House business," he told reporters aboard Air Force One. "Congressman Wilson called the White House to apologize. The president accepted his apology. And this is something that the House is doing."

The public seems to be behind the Democrats. In a USA Today/Gallup survey this week, 68 percent of Americans said they opposed what Wilson did -- and 23 percent said they were "outraged." Even a majority of Republicans frowned on Wilson's shout-out, though only 8 percent were outraged, compared to 41 percent of Democrats.

Republicans, however, are accusing Democrats of that all-purpose political indictment -- hypocrisy.

“In another stunning example of hypocrisy, congressional Democrats are wasting taxpayers’ time and resources on a legislative measure to censure Congressman Joe Wilson so they don’t have to talk about their exceedingly unpopular health care plan," Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said in a statement. "Without question, Joe Wilson made a terrible error in judgment and has wasted no time in extending a personal apology to the president. The president has accepted his apology.

“If we are going to march Members down to the well of the House to apologize, Joe Wilson is going to have to get in line behind Nancy Pelosi, who attacked the intelligence community who protects us, Charlie Rangel who cheated on his taxes, Jack Murtha – a walking scandal, and we all know how the Democratic leadership tried to protect William Jefferson. Democrats don’t want an apology. They want a side show – something to shift the focus away from their government-run experiment on health care.”

Meanwhile, Wilson's Democratic foe is not missing a chance to try to capitalize on the controversy. Rob Miller has filled his campaign coffers for next year since last week.

And in an opinion piece on the liberal Huffington Post website, Miller hits Wilson again.

"Americans need a real debate on health insurance reform, and real relief from skyrocketing health care costs. But as Congressman Wilson showed with his outburst last week, there are still a lot of Washington politicians who put politics ahead of solving problems," Miller writes.