WASHINGTON — Rep. Joe Wilson may have violated good taste when he yelled "You lie!" at President Barack Obama last week. But did he break any specific House rules?
The answer is more complicated than it seems, and the House's Democratic leaders were discussing late Monday what to do next. The rules that some initially cited don't appear to apply.
The House generally requires its members to abstain from personal insults during debate. Over the years, the institution has developed a long list of precedents deemed out of order, including insults directed at the president.
Some are downright odd: You can't call the president "a little bugger" or refer to any alleged sexual misconduct, for example. Others are more predictable: Don't call the president a liar or accuse him of lying.
Democrats initially cited the latter precedent in saying that Wilson's outburst was a violation.
But Wilson, R-S.C., could get off on a technicality on that score because Congress was meeting in a special joint session for Obama's speech on Wednesday, not under the House's normal rules of debate.
The Full Story
No comments:
Post a Comment