Resolution of Disapproval

Resolution of Disapproval

Joe Wilson faces a Resolution of Disapproval from the House today. Wilson, a Republican congressman from South Carolina, was launched into the spotlight last Wednesday after screaming “you lie” at the President during his health care speech to a Joint Session of Congress. Wilson who formally apologized to President Obama and Vice President Biden shortly after the incident says he will not apologize again. The president has accepted his apology and for many House Republicans once is enough. Instead of moving towards health care reform many critics say that continuously pushing this issue is only hurting Democratic efforts toward reaching a consensus on the health care bill.

Wilson’s outburst violates rules for House decorum which states that members must “Refrain from speaking disrespectfully of the Speaker, other Members, the President or Vice President.” The rules also go further to say that House members are not allowed to “call the President a ‘liar’” and that speech on the House floor must seek “to preserve that proper restraint which will permit the House to conduct its business in an orderly manner and without unnecessarily and unduly exciting animosity among its Members or antagonism from those other branches of the Government with which the House is correlated.”

Joe Wilson’s outburst is clearly a violation of House decorum, and House Democratic leadership have been very outspoken about their disapproval; Kristie Greco, spokeswoman for House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, referenced the rowdy British Parliamentary system, saying that there was a reason that we were not like that system; there are rules in our system, decorum to follow.