PrintOn rebuking Joe Wilson
With nothing more urgent on the nation's agenda, the House of Representatives voted 240 for, 179 against slapping Rep. Joe Wilson's (R-SC) wrist for loudly stating "you lie" as President Barack Hussein Obama told Congress that his health care insurance bill couldn't be used by illegal immigrants. Although the vote was largely along party lines, (Democrats for, Republicans against) a few broke ranks.
The seven Republican representatives voted for rebuking Wilson were:
Joseph Cao of Louisiana, Bob Inglis of South Carolina, Tom Petri of Wisconsin, Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri, Walter Jones of North Carolina, Dana Rohrabacher of California, and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
But some Democrat representatives were opposed:
Michael Arcuri of New York, Maurice Hinchey of New York, Paul Hodes of New Hampshire, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts, Dan Maffei of New York, Eric Massa of New York, Jim McDermott of Washington, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, Gene Taylor of Mississippi, Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, and Harry Teague of New Mexico.
Voting "present," Rep Barney Frank (D-MA) , stated bluntly
"I think it's bad precedent to put us in charge of deciding whether people act like jerks. I don't have time to monitor everyone's civility."
Good point. Meanwhile Rep Charles Rangel (D-NY), who forgot to mention a large chunk of income to the IRS, voted to rebuke Wilson's incivility.
Now that this is settled properly and the circus is over perhaps the House of Representatives will go back to business and help decide what to do about an increasingly nuclear Iran, and the economic crisis, while listening to their constituents' real concerns about Obamacare.
That would be civil.
