Punishing Joe Wilson

last updated 8 January 2015

Rep. Joe Wilson sure did Democrats a favor, said Roger Simon in Politico. Wilson "is the simpleton from South Carolina who shouted, 'You lie!'" at President Obama during his health speech to Congress last week (watch Obama speak while Wilson heckles him). "It is so much easier to debate a resolution condemning his rudeness than it is to agree on a bill that provides health care to all Americans without increasing the deficit"—so Democrats are dealing with Wilson first.

Call it a lesson in etiquette for Wilson, said Naftali Bendavid in The Wall Street Journal. "The most common rebukes for a House member are reprimand, censure, and expulsion," but House Democrats are slapping Wilson with the lighter "disapproval" sanction. That allows them to play down the punishment for Wilson's egregious violation of House rules—and the whole matter will be dropped if Wilson apologizes on the House floor, as leaders of both parties want.