Results tagged “joewilson”

Besides admiring the heart-shaped potato an audience member brought in, President Barack Obama continued his media blitz by discussing various issues with David Letterman on the Late Show just now. For instance, when Letterman asked about former President Jimmy Carter's belief that some political attacks against the President (including Rep. Wilson's "You lie!") were steeped in racism, Obama joked, "It's important to realize that I was actually black before the election."

The White House may have publicly distanced itself from former president Jimmy Carter's remarks saying that racism was at the heart of Rep. Joe Wilson's remarks and other anti-Obama sentiment—White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, "The president does not believe that that criticism comes based on the color of his skin"—but Carter continued to hammer the point home. Yesterday, while speaking to Emory University freshman, he said, "When a radical fringe element of demonstrators and others begin to attack the president of the United States as an animal or as a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler or when they wave signs in the air that said we should have buried Obama with Kennedy, those kinds of things are beyond the bounds... I think people who are guilty of that kind of personal attack against Obama have been influenced to a major degree by a belief that he should not be president because he happens to be African-American." Carter even weighed in on Kanye West's Taylor Swift dis, saying it was "completely uncalled for" and "his punishment was to appear on the new Jay Leno show." Ha!

Last night, former President Jimmy Carter spoke to NBC News' Brian Williams about Rep. Joe Wilson's "You lie!" outburst during President Barack Obama's health care reform speech last week. And Carter was blunt, saying, "I think it's based on racism. There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."

Upstate Congressional member Louise Slaughter just reminded her fellow members about what goes for conduct at the House of Representatives, in the wake of the Rep. Joe Wilson "you lie" moment. According to Politico's Glenn Thrush, "Especially useful: The section on how to properly insult the executive branch in the in the chamber. 'Disgrace" and "nitwits' -- okay. 'Liar' or 'sexual misconduct' -- ixnay."

Under section 370 of the House Rules and Manual it has been held that a Member could:

Continue reading "Congressional Dissing: "Nitwits" Okay, "Hypocrite" Not"

President Obama has accepted a South Carolina Republican's apology for shouting, "You lie!" during his health care reform speech to Congress last night. Speaking to reporters after his Cabinet meeting today, Obama said that Wilson apologized "quickly and without equivocation," adding, "We all make mistakes." But we don't all have to be such assholes! If a Democrat had disrupted President Bush during one of his speeches to Congress—when he actually was, you know, lying—the GOP would have probably had the heckler hung for treason.

       

Last night, President Obama made an appeal to Congress—and the American public—that health care must be reformed, "I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last... Our collective failure to meet this challenge - year after year, decade after decade - has led us to a breaking point... The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action."