I’m seeing a distressing amount of criticism of Joe Wilson around these parts, for the sole reason that issued the following statement after shouting at President Obama during his “reform” sales pitch:
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. 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.
Nobody should criticize Joe Wilson over this apology who thinks the President is lying on illegal aliens.
We deal in weak apologies all the time at RedState. Trolls pretend to apologize, then get banned for failing to making a genuine apology for their transgressions. So when I first heard Wilson apologized, I immediately hoped he made one with lots of loopholes, and was gratified to see this statement. Let me take it bit by bit to show you what I mean.
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. I’m sure we all can understand where Wilson is coming from here. I never listen to Obama speak, and never have. This guy had to sit there listening during the joint session. Hearing the President lie repeatedly probably got Wilson angry, and put him in a state of mind where he might speak out in a way he ordinarily might not.
While I disagree with the President’s statement…. Right here, Wilson sends a message. He does not retract his statement about the lie. He does not retreat, he does not compromise, and he does not waver. This phrase boils down to ‘The President is still lying.’ Do not condemn him for this; praise him for having the temerity not to back down in the face of pressure.
…my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. Firstly note the bland, generic use of ‘comments,’ which is another sign that this apology is insincere. If he meant it, he would have said ‘comment,’ because this is about one comment. The use of ‘comments’ marks this as a statement against his heart for political gain.
Then note his descriptors. He does not call his comment incorrect. He does not call it unfair. He merely calls it inappropriate, as it clearly was in that context. It was rude, and against the accepted protocols of such a speech. He also calls it regrettable, which makes sense given all the lefty death threats he’s probably receiving right now. He didn’t say he regretted speaking the truth; he regrets the manner in which he did it.
I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility. And to conclude, Wilson reiterates that he is not apologizing for speaking the truth about the President’s lies, but merely for speaking the truth in an uncivil way. Every line of this piece is crafted not to apologize for the accusation of a lie. It only apologizes for the way in which the accusation was delivered.
So please, lay off of Joe Wilson if you agree with what he shouted. He’s not backing down. He’s just playing the game.
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And another thing
Neil Stevens (Diary) Friday, September 11th at 4:27AM EST (link)Anyone who’s talking more about John McCain than Barack Obama right now, is not in keeping with the spirit of Wilson’s outburst.
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complicit repubs
rap146 Friday, September 11th at 8:33AM EST (link)What I want to know is how is it that all the other repubs could collectively sit on their thumbs while bambi openly lies to the nation. You know the dems would have openly embarrassed him if his name was Bush.
It's not complicity to have class (nt)
Neil Stevens (Diary) Friday, September 11th at 10:04AM EST (link)RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
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nice analysis
bk (Diary) Friday, September 11th at 8:37AM EST (link)The direct version of what he was saying indirectly was something like: “I should have called him out for lying after the speech, not during it.”
Well played, Joe Wilson
6eorge Jetson (Diary) Friday, September 11th at 8:45AM EST (link)The Chameleon Health Care Bill from the Chameleon President needs to be called what it is.
Dems must be mad Mr. Wilson did not use a teleprompter.
penguin2 (Diary) Friday, September 11th at 8:58AM EST (link)That’s just how the supposed decorum of the hallowed halls of Congress works. We know the Dems don’t seem to have the same class and manners, but we do. It also allowed the focus to remain on the comment and the idea that the president is lying, which he is.
The apology eliminated ammunition for the left to use, ie. going after Mr. Wilson for Not apologizing. As you pointed out Neil, people should understand how to read between the lines of the “apology.”
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Shucks, penguin, it doesn't matter how well Wilson apologized,
janis (Diary) Friday, September 11th at 9:48AM EST (link)he used caffeine pills some years ago. See how that works? Caffeine’s just exactly the same as pot and coke, donchaknow. Well, except that it’s legal, doesn’t require a drug rehab program to quit, and doesn’t scramble your brains.
Plus, it seems to have enhanced Wilson’s ability to call the truth out loud and clear when the Cokehead-in-Chief is busy weaving his fantasies out loud. Ergo, he must be destroyed. Did I tie in all the loose ends there?
Janis, yes you did. I forgot how the left doesn't fight fair.
penguin2 (Diary) Friday, September 11th at 10:29AM EST (link)Ever. I look forward to the day all that ancient history about The One finally comes out. Of course, I won’t hold my breath. Maybe we should run a montage of Obama’s “addictions.”
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. – Benjamin Franklin
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Oh, if somebody tried that kind of non-apology apology here...
Moe Lane (Diary) Friday, September 11th at 9:15AM EST (link)…after I told him or her to apologize it’d be grounds for a tossing. I imagine that Wilson sat there for a couple of minutes wondering if he could get away with an open “Sorry if anyone was offended” – only to decide that it was just a bit too over the top.
This is a semi-demi-hemi-professional appraisal of the statement, mind you. Speaking as a partisan Republican hack, it was excellent.
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THAT LYIN STYLE
reelman (Diary) Friday, September 11th at 10:01AM EST (link)Dr. THOMAS SOWELL NAILS BHO LYING STYLE
BHO_LIE
“Hubris-laden charlatans” was the way a recent e-mail from a reader characterized the Obama administration. That phrase seems especially appropriate for the Charlatan-in-Chief, Barack Obama, whose speech to a joint session of Congress was both a masterpiece of rhetoric and a shameless fraud.
To tell us, with a straight face, that he can insure millions more people without adding to the already skyrocketing deficit, is world-class chutzpa and an insult to anyone’s intelligence. To do so after an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office has already showed this to be impossible reveals the depths of moral bankruptcy behind the glittering words.
Did we really need CBO experts to tell us that there is no free lunch? Some people probably did and the true believers in the Obama cult may still believe the President, instead of believing either common sense or budget experts.
Even those who can believe that Obama can conjure up the money through eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse” should ask themselves where he is going to conjure up the additional doctors, nurses, and hospitals needed to take care of millions more patients.
If he can’t pull off that miracle, then government-run medical care in the United States can be expected to produce what government-run medical care in Canada, Britain, and other countries has produced– delays of weeks or months to get many treatments, not to mention arbitrary rationing decisions by bureaucrats.
Obama can deny it in words but what matters are deeds– and no one’s words have been more repeatedly the direct opposite of his deeds– whether talking about how his election campaign would be financed, how he would not rush legislation through Congress, or how his administration was not going to go after CIA agents for their past efforts to extract information from captured terrorists.
President Obama has also declared emphatically that he will not interfere in the internal affairs of other nations– while telling the Israelis where they can and cannot build settlements and telling the Hondurans whom they should and should not choose to be their president.
One of the secrets of being a glib talker is not getting hung up over whether what you are saying is true, and instead giving your full attention to what is required by the audience and the circumstances of the moment, without letting facts get in your way and cramp your style.
Obama has mastered that art ………
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His "apology" was just right
Kentucky Scott (Diary) Friday, September 11th at 10:04AM EST (link)I was one of the few who felt it was inappropriate to for him to shout during the address and the tone of his “apology” was appropriatel However I hope now he gives Obama constant grief and calls him a liar every chance he gets. I get so tired of the milquetoast Republicans who refused to call Obama what he is … a radical leftist liar who wants to destroy the greatest country to ever exist.