Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Liar, liar shoes on fire

I've been thinking about Muntadar al-Zaidi and Joe Wilson. What do the shoe-thrower and the loose-tongued Congressman from South Carolina have in common?

Just this: they both used the President of the United States to thrust themselves into the spotlight and become heroes to their cause. That's worth three years, er one year, nine months... whatever... to al-Zaidi. I'm not sure he expected the torture, but it sounds like he's being promised his virgins in this life; at least he's been getting a lot of marriage proposals. (I'm still impressed by President Bush's reflexes)

Wilson? Hard to tell, but the word is his campaign coffers are overflowing. It's hard to get much traction nationally when you're one of 435 Representatives. His opponent's bound to get the same windfall from the other side of course, but whatever happens he's made his footnote in history.

Let others pontificate on whether he was right. That's one of those boring Washington tempests. What's the point in arguing over a bill that's not even in its final form? You end up with minutiae like who's the liar disputing his claim to have practice immigration law. That's getting pretty far afield, isn't it?

It does show a lack of class. Granted, the Halls of Congress will never be mistaken for British Chambers. We don't do golden prose very well. Still, that kind of heckling is pretty worthless in a town hall meeting. It's totally out of place in the Capitol.

There's a trend here. The yahoos who flaunt their weapons at President Obama's appearances have also lost any perspective or claim to credibility. I understand where they're coming from, support their right.... blah, blah, blah.... and think they've completely lost it.

Civitas. Look it up.

5 comments:

bigsoxfan said...

Affairs of state in the capital building weren't always the staid debates of the last seventy years or so. Around the time of the first civil war, there was a cane beating which put one of the participants into a slow decline which stifled his voice during the lead up to the division of the 1800's. Not sure when the last physical beating occurred near the house of commons. I'm thinking that time was so long ago the infraction ended with a beheading. I'm still impressed by the shoe thrower, he represents more of democracy (although, not parlimentary procedure) than most of the dirtbags walking around on the hill.

KAP said...

A little action might get people to watch C-SPAN.

Maybe we could bring dueling back. Poor Aaron Burr had to go to New Jersey to kill Alexander Hamilton.

(First civil war?)

bigsoxfan said...

I did say "second" didn't I? Sorry, but it up to an excess of utube sessions with the manual to "Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse" Much more enlighting and uplifting a subject, than actually reading the news.

KAP said...

A Yale professor has a little background on "Congressional Rowdies".

bigsoxfan said...

I'll be looking for that book in a few months. "Violence with decorum" A possible title for the ages.