The Joe Wilson Affair - A "Teachable Moment" Squandered

The mainstream media coverage of Congressman Joe Wilson's audacious "speak truth to power" moment in the joint session of Congress on Wednesday predictable avoids the real issues at hand:

1) Mr. Wilson is right - the President's speech was a litany of falsehoods and half-truths.
2) Mr. Wilson was only screaming from the frustration of being subjected to yet another high profile speech that served up all the same, discredited Democrat talking points, instead of the President answering the concerns of tens of millions of Americans about this plan - which was how the speech was billed by administration
3) How else are Republicans to be given a chance to debate this plan - they have been virtually shut out from any meaningful debate in Congress over where we should take our health care system in the future. Would you have ever heard about Joe Wilson's point of view if he hadn't shouted out of turn in the House chamber the other night?

Mr. Wilson should have offered a conditional apology: "I will apologize for my outburst when the President offers some concrete evidence in any of the pending legislation for his claim that these health care benefits will not be extended to illegal aliens." If you don't know the background, Mr. Wilson was a supporter of two amendments offered up in the House that would have required the Democrats to do just that, and both were soundly defeated. For some reason, the Democrats, who have generated thousands of pages of law on this topic, are unwilling to commit to paper the rules and procedures designed to ensure illegal aliens do not abuse our health care system.