Ethics

Outrage and Protocol

By Ed Brayton

Try as I might, I just can't dredge up much outrage over Rep. Joe Wilson yelling out "liar" during President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress. Yes, it was a breach of protocol and etiquette and he's been rightly upbraided for it. But I think some of the expressions of outrage are way over the top and, quite frankly, feigned. Let me make several points.

First, I have a sneaking suspicion that for a lot of people who are up in arms about this, if a Democratic legislator had yelled out "liar" in the middle of a Bush address to Congress, they would find every excuse possible for it. At the very least, their outrage would be considerably more muted.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on September 11, 2009 (boomark / email).