Profitable to Claim Obama is a Liar

The dollar bills are pouring into the campaign war chest of Joe Wilson, the Republican congressman who yelled “You lie!” during the president’s address to Congress last week.

The congressman from South Carolina, who has become a national celebrity in America and a mascot for the conservative part of the media world, is up for election next year.

The Democratic Party is hoping Wilson’s verbal attack on the president will hurt him so much that his political career will end.

Right after Joe Wilson made his infamous statement, reports came that his challenger had collected more than $1 million in campaign funds. The challenger is Democrat and Iraq War veteran Rob Miller.

But now the Republican sponsors are also mobilizing for Wilson. The latest numbers the Republican Party has made public shows that Wilson has raised $1.5 million to campaign with. And so it would seem that the name-calling incident has increased the intensity of the South Carolina race and given Wilson additional funds to campaign with.

But if Wilson is popular among his own, he was penalized by Congress.

Tuesday, Congress passed a resolution to admonish Joe Wilson because he refused to offer an apology to Congress during Tuesday’s session. That very night, he called The White House and apologized for interrupting the president and for yelling “You lie!” to him. He was asked to do so both by fellow party members and political opponents. Via his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who has years of experience as a representative himself, the president accepted the apology. Wilson said this was enough, but a majority of Congress’ members underlined that this too was a breach of code. This is why the majority decided to admonish him. Many see Wilson’s outburst as a sign that the more uncivilized tone from the town hall meetings on health care reform has spread to Congress.

It was when President Obama stated that his health care reform would not insure health care for illegal immigrants that Wilson interrupted him with his outburst. This is a myth about the reform that has been difficult to rebuff.

Wilson got the mildest form of admonishment from the House of Representatives. He is the second since the turn of the century that has been admonished. Democrats mainly voted for his admonishment while Republicans voted against it. The treatment of Wilson and the debates show that the fronts are hardening in the debate on American health care reform. The possibilities to come up with reform that will gain support from Republicans seem small.