Say It Again, Joe!

The AP, fresh from reciting its “I Pledge” promise to Obama to use its position to protect the president, is helpfully reporting that Joe Wilson’s outburst at Obama’s speech last night overshadows the president’s weak showing.

It is meant to be a diversion from the issue of the public option covering immigrants, which it almost certainlt is going to do.

It won’t work.

Only 10 days ago the AP was celebrating the release of the Iraqi who threw his shoes at George W. Bush. “Muntadhar al-Zeidi's act during Bush's last visit to Iraq as president turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world amid anger over the 2003 invasion.”

Vocal outbursts during sessions of a deliberative body are not that shocking. At worst it was a breach of decorum, but compared to standards lowered by Democrats and liberal activists in recent years, it is really rather tame. All of us lived through eight years of former President Bush being accused by Congressional Democrats of being a liar, a Nazi, a racist, a murderer, and worse, Cindy Sheehan being hailed for her obnoxious behavior, and Bush being openly booed and hissed by Democrats during a State of the Union speech.

I applaud Wilson for, literally, standing up and calling out the president when he deserved to be called out. I also applaud him for apologizing for incivility, while reiterating his disagreement with Obama’s statement.