Brownell: Stress in Congress over the color blue

Pub date October 21, 2009
SectionBruce Blog

What happens when members of Congress get post traumatic stress syndrome and see blue, blue, blue

By Jess Brownell

(Jess Brownell is our Voice of the Heartland, a freelance writer who lives in Milwaukee.)

I know this was a while ago now in Andy Warhol Time, but good old Joe Wilson keeps popping into my mind. For me, the most interesting aspect of his “You lie” shout during the Obama speech to congress was its timing. To be fair, there are moments in any presidential speech when a shout of “You exaggerate,” or “You embellish,” or maybe even “You prevaricate” would be understandable, if out of order. But in this instance, Rep. Wilson chose a moment when the President was obviously telling the truth. Obama has advocated no health plan that would cover illegal immigrants, and the legislator from South Carolina must have known that.