To provide some historical context for heckling congressman Joe Wilson, the Washington Post has done a time line of misbehavior by South Carolinians in Congress (with a brief detour to Gov. Sanford’s non-hiking trip, which I think is padding), that begins, of course, with Preston Brooks caning Charles Sumner over Sumner’s Kansas speech. It provides an opportunity for bringing back to mind such luminaries as Pitchfork Ben Tillman:
During debate over whether to annex the Phillipines, Sen. Benjamin Tillman charged fellow South Carolina Democrat John McLaurin with succumbing to ”improper influences” in changing his position. McLaurin denounced Tillman’s statement and, in response, Tillman punched him. A brawl ensued, and the incident prompted members to change Senate rules to provide stricter guidelines for the decorum of floor debate.
Does this mean that only in 1900 was brawling discouraged in the Senate? You also get Strom Thurmond (who makes 2 appearances) wrestling Ralph Yarborough in an attempt to block a committee vote on the confirmation of a head of one of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs, and Jim Jenrette (prior to his Abscam fall) caught having sex (but, being a family values kind of guy, with his wife) behind a pillar of the Capital steps, thus providing the name for the comedy troupe (that one’s news to me).
It’s more than just an aphorism: South Carolina: Too small to be a nation … too large to be an insane asylum.
Mo Dowd has a good column on what Congressman Wilson was really saying and thinking, which is what a lotta The Great Unwashed (literally, intellectually, and otherwise figuratively) are thinking and saying:
http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/opinion/13dowd.html?sort=oldest&offset=4
We old goats have seen and heard this before. In our younger days it was called Massive Resistance. There was not one southern congressman or senator who would stand up and assume a position of positive leadership regarding civil rights. Not one. Just a buncha gutless bastards.
And guess who represents us today: just a buncha gutless clones who learned nothing from history, understand nothing, and are committed to Massive Resistance II. Their sole aim is to destroy Obama by Massive Resistance to his legislative initiatives, especially healthcare reform, with no regard for how stupid they look, sound, and behave. They will sit back and vote as a bloc in opposition to every piece of legislation proposed by the majority. They will concede nothing. They will agree to nothing.
They have sold out to pharma and insurance. They cannot abide the Democratic Party’s going down in the history books as the party and the leadership that modernized American healthcare, just as it gets credit for civil rights and Medicare and Medicaid.
Pogo would put it this way today: We have met the enemy, and he is those crazy sonsabitches shouting “You lie” and those who support them.
Randy Newman wrote a song about Ben’s “The Great Unwashed” titled “Rednecks”. The refrain starts: “We’re rednecks, we’re rednecks. We don’t know our ass from a hole in the ground. . . .” For those of you who are familiar with Randy’s work, there is no need for me to go on with the lyrics which may offend some and for those of you who are not, find a copy and listen to it.