Blog - The Joe Wilson Resolution 
The Joe Wilson Resolution
September 15, 2009 - by Donny Shaw
UPDATE: The resolution has been adopted by a vote on 240-179. See below for more detailed vote information.
Original post:
The House is preparing to vote this afternoon on a symbolic resolution to condemn Rep. Addision “Joe” Wilson [R, SC-2] for shouting “You lie!” at President Obama during his healthcare speech to a joint session of Congress last week. See video of the incident here.
Here is the full text of the resolution, via the House Majority Leader:
H. Res. 744
Raising a question of the privileges of the House.
Whereas on September 9, 2009, during the joint session of Congress convened pursuant to House Concurrent Resolution 179, the President of the United States, speaking at the invitation of the House and Senate, had his remarks interrupted by the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson; and
Whereas the conduct of the Representative from South Carolina was a breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session, to the discredit of the House: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives disapproves of the behavior of the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson, during the joint session of Congress held on September 9, 2009.
House Republican Leader John Boehner is urging Republicans to vote against the resolution, arguing that Wilson has already apologized to the President and that the resolution sets a bad precedent of nitpicking behavior. But Democrats argue that the decorum rules of the House specifically ban this kind of behavior and that the rules must be enforced.
UPDATE: The resolution has officially been passed by the House.
The final vote tally was 240-179, with 7 Republicans siding with Democrats on the resolution to condemn Wilson, and 12 Democrats voting with Republicans against it. Five Democrats voted “present.”
I’ll update again as soon as the full roll call details are available online.
UPDATE 2: Full roll call details can be seen here.
Here are the 7 Republicans that voted with the Democrats in favor the resolution:
Rep. Anh Cao [R, LA-2]
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson [R, MO-8]
Rep. Jeff Flake [R, AZ-6]
Rep. Bob Inglis [R, SC-4]
Rep. Walter Jones [R, NC-3]
Rep. Thomas Petri [R, WI-6]
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher [R, CA-46]
Here are the 12 Democrats who voted against it:
Rep. Michael Arcuri [D, NY-24]
Rep. William Delahunt [D, MA-10]
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords [D, AZ-8]
Rep. Maurice Hinchey [D, NY-22]
Rep. Dennis Kucinich [D, OH-10]
Rep. Daniel Maffei [D, NY-25]
Rep. Eric Massa [D, NY-29]
Rep. James McDermott [D, WA-7]
Rep. Gwen Moore [D, WI-4]
Rep. Gene Taylor [D, MS-4]
Rep. Harry Teague [D, NM-2]
The 5 Democrats who voted “present”:
Rep. Eliot Engel [D, NY-17]
Rep. Bill Foster [D, IL-14]
Rep. Barney Frank [D, MA-4]
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter [D, NH-1]
Rep. Ike Skelton [D, MO-4]
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Displaying 1-30 of 53 total comments.
I think its the Obama Wars now and any blood for the lack of leadership is on the hands of a Democrat. This winning an election is tough some times. Oh yeah the Obamabailoutbaggage should be ready for serving in January 2010. Enjoy
What amazes me about all this is how fast, when the Obamites realized that a big ole kiss-ass apology wasn't forthcoming to those who do not deserve one, the race card was pulled out from under an old peanut farmers mattress (where he obviously keeps it close at hand).
"Resolved, That the House of Representatives disapproves of the behavior of the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson, during the joint session of Congress held on September 9, 2009."
At least while they were wasting time drafting this ridiculously obvious "statement for the record" they weren't screwing something else up.
Joe's a hero.
I have been using screwdrivers all my life and have just realized what I have been practicing for.....to be one of the millions of Americans preparing to screw congress permanently for being the lying cheating bastards they are!
In reference to my prior statement about abusive language and name calling:
Sunday I went on a site for 'whorunsgov' in regard to the rally Saturday. I found so much inappropriate commentary, that I started over and read every blog, over 200 of them, and with paper and pencil counted only the ones that were very clear on their political persuasion. I found that the foul language and name calling AGAINST the people at the rally who oppose the federal government enacting a bill that would include everyone but them and other federal employees and with an incalculable cost, far outnumbered the other side. The potty mouths were doing a huge disservice to either the Democratic Party or Mr. Obama and none of those blogs contained anything that would lead us to believe they even know why they support the bill.
Peter Stark, CA, did indeed call Mr. Bush a liar in 2007, and there have been several times in Congress where both parties have booed the other as Bush was booed at the Obama inaugural. I am not a fan of Mr. Bush, but Congress is why we are in Iraq. It was not Pearl Harbor and they had plenty of time to do more research on the situation over there before voting to invade.
To indiscriminately label those who do not want the federal government to institute another colossal program which has a high probabily of economical failure as racist is racist in itself.
No healthcare bill has been enacted and if one is, it will be the legislative branch that does it and if you disagree with it use your vote in 2012.
The abusive language and name calling reflects badly on the party or person you support.
Mr. Wilson apologized the apology was accepted END OF STORY! If our congress has nothing better to do than this, then get out of office. STOP spending our tax money needlessly and STOP crying racism just because you don't get your way with everything.
In addition to my comment above:
Do those of you calling both sides foul names, cursing at them, etc. actually feel that those irrational statements give validity to your arguments? I wish both sides would be able to sit down and have logical debates based on FACT, not supposition.
This issue of race is going entirely overboard. I believe that we HAVE truly gotten past this (although there will always be individuals who are radical racists) and judge people the way Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned, "not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Joe Wilson acted with extreme disrespect, but there is no obvious sign that his outburst was racially motivated. The fact is that although the bill implies that health care would not be available to illegal aliens, there was nothing in place that would VERIFY that any certain individual was actually a citizen of the United States before they were offered taxpayer funded healthcare. Now that the issue has come to the forefront of the national debate amendments have been suggested to enforce citizenship verification when applying for funds from a public option.
Point being: Joe Wilson was infuriated that the President was misleading the public by his statement, NOT because he's a black man.
While his behavior was inappropriate he did apologize, the President accepted, and that should have been the end of it. Our Congress, with their lack of ethics and with quite a few of those who themselves have demonstrated less than stellar behavior just wasted value time and energy on this distraction. I will certainly remember this at next election.
Time to move on and talk about what is really important.
I think it is great that the house took the time to address this issue. It is not like there are any other major issues they could be working to resolve.
Is there anyone with even the slightest bit of logic who doesn't believe this was a racist decision. Do you really think if Joe Wilson was black and the president was white we would be seeing this pathetic display?
This was a partisan political decision, not a racist one.
Yes. An african american asshole and a white president would get the same pathetic display.
Moderated Comment
W is keeping track of the body count and BHO is trying to expand on it. when will people wake up and see what is going on?
Amen brother. Congress needs to wake up and end Bush's wars.
We all need to remember the names of the republicans who voted for this, and get ready to kick them out next year with all the dems!!!!
That is correct, I have already called......
1. all Democrats who voted against it, and thanked them.
2. all republicans, and told them they were gonna have to get a real job next year as they were going to get voted out.
Joe Wilson is condemned and Charlie Rangel who is a tax cheat and liar is ok? Tim Geitner another tax cheat is ok? Come on now. This is just to take our eye off the prize...stopping health care reform and stopping Cap & Trade. Keep your phone calls and letters going in. We can stop this stupidity if we band together. NO HEALTH CARE REFORM AND NO CAP & TRADE!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a little bit ridiculous and petty. Sure, he made a mistake, but don't we all??? He apologized to The President and that should be sufficient.
I think that Congress should be spending more time on the IMPORTANT issues, like unemployment, health care, etc.
Well thank god they got that taken care of. Now we as a nation can move forward and put this whole tragedy behind us. I applaud the bravery of congress to put aside something as trivial as healthcare or foreign wars to get a petty slap on the wrist officially on record. It's good to see they know where their priorities are.
So, how many of our friends and family were killed in the desert for no reason today? Anyone know?
Thank you. I was about to write a comment, but you saved me the trouble.
I think W is keeping track of the number of brave men and women he sent needlessly to their deaths.
4344 so far in Iraq.
830 in Afghanistan
I concur with your analysis. Congress should make a priority of stopping Bush's wars.
Watch videos of President Bushes' speeches and you will see the disrepect given him. It was there for the whole world to see.
they aren't bush's wars, they are our wars. the only problem is that we are too squeamish to properly fight them. if we fought the way our barbarian enemy does, we could squash the whole thing overnight. alas, a civilian might be harmed. they were so considerate of ours on Sept. 11, 2001.
it occurs to me that not one single post has gotten to the crux of the matter, i.e. the fact that our dear leader was in fact lying. i wish we had a parliament like japan, where they kick your ass if you piss them off. would have been sweet to see old wilson walk right down there and smack obama upside the head.....lol
Typical fact-free reply of the right. Did Glenn Beck tell you it's true?
As someone with no respect for Bush, and having watched many of his speeches, I can assure you he was not heckled by members of congress.
A major exception to the civility of course is the shoe-thrower. But that was in another country and he was not an elected official in the U.S.
If you are going to crucify one person for outbursts, you must do it for all! Go back and fine, sanction, force an apology from all those who heckled, audibly laughed at and "booed" George W. Bush's speeches, regardless of race, political affiliation or content..... what's fair for one is fair for all. Besides, Joe Wilson only spoke of what many, many others were thinking, myself included. Democrats need to grow up and stop pointing fingers at the Republicans. Remember, when one finger is pointing away at someone else, 4 are pointing right back at you!
Really? Provide one example when Bush was audibly "heckled" on the house or senate floor.
Harry Reid also called Bush a liar and a loser. Double standard for sure - but that's the way it's been for six months now.