What a boob

Because my parents and my youngest brother live in South Carolina, I try to believe that it's not a state filled with crackpots and buffoons, despite behavior to the contrary by public officials down there. Gov. Mark Sanford has been under the hottest spotlight of late, what with his gallivanting around with a mistress while his aides claimed he was on a hiking trip. He must have been somewhat relieved when, during President Obama's health-care speech last night, Republican Rep. Joe Wilson wrested away his title as biggest idiot from the Palmetto State. If you haven't heard, when Obama was noting that health-care reform would not lead to spending of public money on care for illegal immigrants, Wilson shouted out, "You lie!" Politicans on both sides of the aisle condemned Wilson for his embarrassing action, and Wilson later called the White House to apologize. But in an atmosphere in which a recent candidate for vice president can lie about "death panels” and talk radio-fueled imbeciles try to shout down a handicapped woman at a town hall meeting, is it any surprise that public discourse has come to this? Oh, by the way, Wilson (no surprise here) didn't know what he was talking about. There's no move afoot to use public funds to finance health care for illegal immigrants. In fact, current legislation in the House would expressly prohibit it. And Wilson’s intemperate behavior might come back to haunt him at the ballot box. His Democratic opponent in next year's election raised $200,000 following the outburst.