I’ve known Joe Wilson for 39 years.
My college roommate and I used to play cards with Joe and another friend, Rusty, just about every Sunday afternoon. Typically we played Canasta, rummy or Whist – usually at his grandmother’s house in Springdale. He helped me tremendously in almost all of my own political campaigns and he has been such a loyal friend and supporter.
The Joe Wilson I knew then and now is not the congressman I saw yell out during the president’s speech to Congress on Wednesday night.
Joe is one of the most non-confrontational people I’ve ever known. He is friendly, polite, easy-going and generally not argumentative. He has always been one to stand firmly for his principles without being belligerent.
Joe is conservative and a loyal Republican; that he would disagree with many of Obama’s ideas is no surprise.
That Joe Wilson, the congressman, would yell out anything at all during the president’s speech before Congress was a total shock!
It’s likely that I would have been mildly surprised had he even yelled out during a campaign speech at a rally, where there is often cheering as well as jeering. That’s because Joe is usually so very respectful of all people around him and typically such a gentleman.
If someone had told me that a congressman yelled out something during the president’s speech and asked me to guess which member of House had done so, Joe Wilson would have been one of my very last guesses.
The chamber of the US House of Representatives during a presidential speech is not the place for such behavior. Members of Congress should respect the office of the presidency even if not the particular occupant or the occupant’s views.
What other options did the congressman have? He could had skipped the speech altogether. He could have refused to stand or to applaud. He could have issued a statement or held a news conference following the speech.
This, by the way, is not a commentary on Obama’s views or on Wilson’s views but rather on the conduct. It’s okay to sit at home in front of a television and yell out anything and everything. That’s totally different. This has nothing to do with whether Joe Wilson’s words were something a lot of people might have been thinking.
I cannot imagine what passion or background caused the outburst heard ‘round the world by this usually mild-mannered congressman. Adrenalin causes people to do all kinds of extraordinary things sometimes. Maybe it was adrenalin which led to the outburst on Wednesday night. Maybe it was anger and frustration over the issue of health insurance.
With our state’s lame duck, ought-to-resign governor making headlines for the last few months, South Carolina didn’t need this kind of publicity.
Unlike Sanford, though, Wilson didn’t break any laws. It was just a matter of dishonoring decorum.
It’s my understanding that subsequent interviews with the congressman have shown him to be the principled, articulate, mild-mannered person he really is. I hope this one lapse in his judgment will not define this man who has served his state and country so well.
That Joe Wilson immediately apologized is to his credit. A prompt apology is exactly what I would have expected from my long-time friend who has meant so much to me over the years.
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