'You lie' a sign of bigger race issue, Ga. congressmen say

By Bob Keefe

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You Lie” outburst during President Barack Obama’s speech earned the South Carolina Republican an official rebuke from Congress on Tuesday, while stirring up issues of racism, partisanship and general political nastiness.

Congress’s official disapproval of Wilson’s remarks came as some black members of Georgia’s congressional delegation said his public disrespect of the nation’s first African-American president smacks of a bigger issue: racism.

In advance of Congress’s official censure of Wilson, U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Lithonia) told Fox News that people will put on “white hoods and ride through the countryside” if racial undertones are left unchecked — an apparent reference to the Ku Klux Klan. Johnson hinted that Wilson’s remarks were indicative of the racial undertones that have swelled since Obama’s election.

Rep. David Scott (D-Atlanta) also suggested that Wilson’s remarks were indicative of racial undercurrents. During August, Scott — who like Johnson is black — got several pieces of racist hate mail regarding health care reform that referred to him and Obama with racial epithets. A swastika was also painted on a sign outside one of his district offices.

“I think certain things have been tolerated to allow a disrespect of this president because he is an African-American,” Scott said in an interview.

“I can’t get inside Joe Wilson’s mind; I don’t know what he felt,” Scott said. “But when you put [his] comments in the parameter of all the other things that are happening, one has to assume that if it was [George] Bush or if it was a white [president] the respect level would have been there when this time it was not.”

Wilson’s outburst occurred Sept. 9 during the president speech on health care before a joint session of Congress. Wilson apologized to Obama the next day, and the president accepted it. But Wilson refused to offer an apology to the House.

The House voted Tuesday largely on party lines to pass a resolution stating that it disapproves of Wilson’s behavior.

All seven of Georgia’s Republican House members voted against the resolution. All six of its Democrats voted for it.

As Democrats called for the resolution on the House floor, Wilson sat silently. Georgia Republican Reps. Tom Price of Roswell and Nathan Deal of Gainesville sat immediately behind him, and several Republican House members came up and shook his hand.

Fellow South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn chastised Wilson for what he called “reprehensible conduct” and said Congress should be teachers of good behavior, not bad.

House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland said the House “ought not to stand silent” in the face of Wilson’s poor decorum.

Then Wilson stood and defended himself, paraphrasing the president he had angrily shouted at just a week earlier.

“The president has said the time for games are over, and I agree,” Wilson said. “It is time we move on and get to work for the American people.”

Humbly but pointedly, Wilson rebuffed Democrats for bringing the resolution.

In an orchestrated effort, other Republicans agreed. House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio called the resolution a “partisan stunt” by Democrats.

And Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Coweta County echoed his party’s stance in a statement.

“It’s a disgrace that this has commanded the full attention of the House for an entire day,” Westmoreland said.

“Instead of dealing with the loss of millions of jobs, the nation’s largest deficit ever or access to affordable health care, the House leadership decided that what was really important today was demanding an apology from someone who had already apologized,” he said.