A reader writes:
At first your little jab that the House formally rebuking Wilson is "a petty move, which it was" aroused my ire. I immediately thought to myself, "Really. Formally rebuking a member of congress for yelling at the president is petty? What are liberals supposed to do when this happens? Roll over like we do on everything else?"
The man disgraced himself, to be sure, but he added wind to the sails of those who think our president Obama is somehow illegitimate. He was rightly rebuked. But then I stepped back and thought for a minute. We have become fond of saying that no Democrat did that during a Bush address. Okay, fine. But what if one had?
What if Dennis Kucinich--to lift a favorite liberal out of my head--had stood up and declared Bush a liar during a State of the Union? How would I have really felt? After all the finger wagging, how would I have felt?
Like I'd been given water in the desert.
So while it is appalling and galling that a Republican stands up and yells it less than a year after President Obama was elected, after we held off for eight long tortured years, I have to admit some of my outrage over Wilson is hypocritical. And you're right, it was petty.