South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” during President Obama’s health care speech to Congress on Wednesday.  Wilson’s outburst came when Obama denied that his proposed health care legislation would provide free health coverage to illegal immigrants.

Obama immediately stopped his speech and glared at the heckler, as if Wilson were an insolent child.  “That’s not true,” Obama coolly responded.  CNN Fact check: Will reform plan cover illegal immigrants?

Seated behind Obama, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared shocked (though she often has that deer-in-the-headlights look) and Vice President Joe Biden looked down and shook his head (probably glad that for once he wasn’t the one sticking foot-in-mouth).  Loud boos echoed through the chamber.

After the President’s speech, members of both parties condemned the heckling.  Wilson issued a statement apologizing for his outburst.  “This evening, I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill,” his statement said.  “While I disagree with the president’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable.  I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility.”

Wilson also called the White House to apologize.  Obama gave him the brush off, but Wilson spoke with Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who accepted the apology on the president’s behalf.  “We can disagree without being disagreeable,” Emanuel said to Wilson.  “That was the point of the president’s speech.”  That’s obviously a lesson that neither side of the aisle has ever learned.

So where the heckler was watchdog Wilson when George W. Bush was blindly leading our country into a trillion dollar war with Iraq?  Obviously the Bush administration’s claim of “weapons of mass destruction in Iraq” turned out to be one of the biggest and most expensive political untruths in history.  For the money we’ve spent on Iraq, we could have funded the gold-plated version of health care reform and covered every U.S. citizen.  But now we are so strapped for cash that our Congress is likely once again to do nothing and sweep this massive problem under the rug.

Story at CNN

CNN’s Jack Cafferty published an excellent column on how Nancy Pelosi and the Congressional Democrats are using the same ol’ partisanship to ruin Obama’s mojo.  Here’s a brief excerpt:

“Well, that didn’t take long.  Three weeks into the new administration and the Democrats are squandering their advantage and threatening to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Credit House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for getting the ball rolling.  Under her leadership, House Democrats excluded Republicans from having any voice in crafting the stimulus package.

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