Democrats Shouted, Booed, and Hissed During Bush State of Union Address

[Dos Equis]

Hulse Accuses Rep. Wilson of "Disrespect" for President, Ignores Own 2005 Reporting on Dems Heckling Bush
Carl Hulse ignores his own reporting to claim Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst was "a rare breach of the protocol" of presidential addresses to Congress. Yet a Hulse story from Bush's 2005 State of the Union reported: "Democrats hollered 'no, no!' as a Mr. Bush asserted that the Social Security system 'would be exhausted and bankrupt' in 40 years." Hulse didn't accuse the Democrats then of disrespect for the president, as he allowed Dems to do with Rep. Wilson.

Posted by: Clay Waters
9/10/2009 1:12:43 PM

Covering President Obama's health care address to Congress, congressional reporter Carl Hulse filed a full story on the outburst by Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, "In Lawmaker's Outburst, a Rare Breach of Protocol."

Wilson shouted "You lie!" after Obama made this dubious claim (one fiercely supported by the Times) about health coverage for illegal immigrants:

There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false -- the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.

The Times is glossing over the fact that nothing in any of the Democrat bills requires citizen verification.

Reporter Hulse huffed:

It was a rare breach of the protocol that governs ritualistic events in the Capitol.

In an angry and very audible outburst, Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, interrupted President Obama’s speech Wednesday night with a shout of “You lie!”

His eruption -- in response to Mr. Obama’s statement that Democratic health proposals would not cover illegal immigrants -- stunned members of both parties in the House chamber.

Democrats said it showed lack of respect for the office of the presidency and was reminiscent of Republican disruptions at recent public forums on health care.

“It is outrageous,” said Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York, who said it reminded him of the “antics that are being used to disrupt and fog what is going on.”

After the speech, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff who sat a few rows in front of Mr. Wilson, said he immediately approached senior Republican lawmakers to encourage them to identify the heckler and urge him to issue an apology quickly.

“No president has ever been treated like that. Ever,” Mr. Emanuel said.

Other Democrats said they did not want to dwell on the outburst or allow it to overshadow what they saw as an effective address by the president. But they also said it bolstered their contention that some Republicans were not interested in constructive dialogue, and they noted that Democratic plans specifically barred coverage for illegal immigrants.

The best Hulse could do for precedent was a flashback to 1993, when Democrat Bill Clinton pushed health care before Congress. Hulse then recited a contemporaneous Times report blaming the GOP: "...many on the Republican side of the aisle began snickering, shaking their heads skeptically and making faces at each other."

But Hulse didn't have to go back that far for a verbal show of disrespect to a president. Strangely, Hulse skipped over his very own reporting from George W. Bush's 2005 State of the Union, where Bush was verbally attacked by Democrats when he brought up Social Security reform.

From the February 3, 2005 edition, "Democrats Take Aim at Social Security Proposal, Calling It a Risky Gamble," written by Hulse and Adam Nagourney:

From the moment Mr. Bush turned to the subject of Social Security in his speech, there was no doubt of the intensely partisan battle his proposal had spawned. Democrats hollered "no, no!" as a Mr. Bush asserted that the Social Security system "would be exhausted and bankrupt" in 40 years, making it appear for a moment that Mr. Bush was standing in the well at the British House of Commons.

Hulse and Nagourney didn't devote a full story accusing Democrats of showing "lack of respect for the office of the presidency," or lump them with liberal anti-Bush protesters, or survey prominent Republicans demanding apologies from the Democrats. Neither did any of the other Times reporters who covered Bush's 2005 speech. Instead, they briefly mentioned the hostile Democratic response, and moved on to how hard it would be for Bush to achieve his goals.

Here's an excerpt from reporters Richard Stevenson and David Sanger February 3, 2005 story, "In Speech, Bush Sketches a Bold Domestic and Foreign Agenda."

He was relaxed and smooth in his delivery, even when some Democrats hooted in derision at his assertions that Social Security is in dire financial straits.

And then there's this, from Elisabeth Bumiller and Anne Kornblut's February 3, 2005 story, "Guests Help to Embody Administration Policies."

At other points in Mr. Bush's long discourse on Social Security, they rumbled and hissed, fairly rare behavior during State of the Union addresses.

http://www.timeswatch.org/articles/2009/20090910125926.aspx

[Purge_WTF]

  Hypocrisy at play here for sure.

[240 is Back]

Interesting.  Video of the 2005 jeering?

[George Whorewell]

None of that ever happened Beach. There is no video because Fox News deleted the footage. More partisan trickery by the republicans. Wilson should be waterboarded in a pool of vodka until he admits he is a covert agent of a right wing radical white sepratist group.

Wilson is a bigger threat to national security than Al Queda.

[tonymctones]

Interesting.  Video of the 2005 jeering?

small clip watch at the end how half of the audience doesnt applaud either

[Dos Equis]

None of that ever happened Beach. There is no video because Fox News deleted the footage. More partisan trickery by the republicans. Wilson should be waterboarded in a pool of vodka until he admits he is a covert agent of a right wing radical white sepratist group.

Wilson is a bigger threat to national security than Al Queda.

lol.     He was on the front page of CNN.com for nearly two days.

[Dos Equis]

small clip watch at the end how half of the audience doesnt applaud either

Is there really a difference between this and what Wilson did? 

[Hugo Chavez]

Is there really a difference between this and what Wilson did? 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/heckling_history

[Dos Equis]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/heckling_history

From the link:

"Occasionally, members of the opposing party have been known to boo and jeer as expressions of dissent on a specific point," says Beuttler, citing instances during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. But before Wednesday, he says, "expressions of individual opposition of members to a president's speech had not been recorded."

So if a group boo and jeer it's and shout "no" it's not a big deal.  

[Hugo Chavez]

From the link:

"Occasionally, members of the opposing party have been known to boo and jeer as expressions of dissent on a specific point," says Beuttler, citing instances during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. But before Wednesday, he says, "expressions of individual opposition of members to a president's speech had not been recorded."

So if a group boo and jeer it's and shout "no" it's not a big deal.  

that's right bb...

[Dos Equis]

that's right bb...

That makes absolutely no sense.  You can't have a collection of members booing, jeering, and shouting without an individual member participating.  It's really a meaningless distinction.  It's actually worse for a group of people to breach protocol than for a single person to do so.  Who wrote that article?  lol . . .

[Hugo Chavez]

That makes absolutely no sense.  You can't have a collection of members booing, jeering, and shouting without an individual member participating.  It's really a meaningless distinction.  It's actually worse for a group of people to breach protocol than for a single person to do so.  Who wrote that article?  lol . . .

the article was an easy read, did you need some help somewhere?

[Dos Equis]

So not only have Democrats shouted at a Republican president, but Republicans have shouted at a Democrat president.  This doesn't justify what Wilson did, but it certainly makes the outcry and talk of punishment pretty silly.   

Pundits called Dems' reaction during Bush address "unprecedented," but Republicans booed Clinton
February 04, 2005 6:38 pm ET

Media figures have falsely claimed that Democrats' audible disapproval of President Bush's misleading claim in his February 2 State of the Union address that Social Security will be "exhausted and bankrupt" in 2042 was "unprecedented." In fact, Republicans routinely booed and hissed during President Clinton's State of the Union addresses.

Many hosts and pundits suggested the Democrats' reaction was the first of its kind:

TED KOPPEL (ABC host): When the president talked about the bankruptcy of Social Security, there were clearly some Democrats on the floor who thought that that was taking it too far. And they did something that, apparently, no one at this table has ever heard before. They booed. [ABC, Nightline, 2/2/05; Koppel's panel consisted of former Bush adviser Mary Matalin, former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein, and former Clinton speechwriter Michael Waldman]

JOHN ROBERTS (CBS White House correspondent): At a couple points in this address, it looked more like the British Parliament than the United States Congress. I've never heard the minority party shout at the president during the State of the Union address. [CBS, post-speech coverage, 2/2/05]

JOE SCARBOROUGH (former U.S. representative (R-FL) and MSNBC host): After the Democrats booed and hissed, Republicans were on the floor saying, you know, we never once did that to Clinton. So every time he would talk about Social Security, the roars got a little louder. And they got behind their president. [MSNBC, Hardball, 2/2/05]

BOB BARR (former U.S. representative (R-GA) and CNN contributor): It will be a very, very difficult battle as we saw by the unprecedented and, I think, highly improper virtual booing of the president when he simply said that the system is going to be bankrupt and the time is now to fix it. [CNN, Inside Politics, 2/3/05]

JOE WATKINS (radio host and CNN substitute host): Did you hear it? Certainly not the polite protocol usually practiced when a president speaks to Congress. If a Democrat one day delivers a State of the Union address, I hope the Republicans won't lower themselves to such a disrespectful level. I hope last night's behavior by a few lawmakers doesn't set a new precedent, that both parties can agree to remain civil, even when voicing disagreements.

[...]

PAUL BEGALA (CNN host): Let me correct your history -- 1993, I was with President Bill Clinton in that House chamber when he addressed a joint session of Congress. And Republicans heckled him when he cited Congressional Budget Office statistics about the deficit. [CNN, Crossfire, 2/3/05]

JOHN GIBSON (FOX News host): Maryanne Marsh, what did you think of those audible jeers, boos, for the president? It sounded a little like the House of Commons: that grumbling that comes from the back-benchers when they don't like something [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair said. That isn't very common for state of the union speeches, is it?

MARYANNE MARSH (Democratic strategist): I don't ever remember hearing it, and was very surprised. But I have to say at least the good news is the Democrats are fighting and they're on offense. And they're more united than they've ever been against George Bush and the Republicans. [FOX News, The Big Story with John Gibson, 2/3/05]

In addition to the 1993 State of the Union, during which, as Begala pointed out, Republicans heckled Clinton, they also voiced their disapproval in three other Clinton State of the Union addresses, which were presumably attended by then-members of Congress Scarborough and Barr:

"Clinton's proposal to expand Medicare to allow Americans as young as 55 to buy into the system drew shouts of "no" and some boos from Republicans during his speech." [Chicago Tribune, 1/28/98]

"Only once did they unmistakably and collectively show their disapproval -- when Clinton spoke disparagingly of a GOP-sponsored constitutional amendment to balance the budget. Many Republicans hissed and some booed." [Los Angeles Times, 2/5/97]

"The upheaval wrought by the Republican election landslide was visible throughout the president's State of the Union address -- from the moment Speaker Newt Gingrich took the gavel to the striking silence that often greeted Clinton from the GOP. At one point, Republicans even booed. About 20 of them left as Clinton went on and on for an hour and 20 minutes." [Associated Press, 1/24/95]

As Media Matters for America has noted, the assertion that Social Security will be "exhausted and bankrupt" in 2042 is misleading, since Bush's own Social Security board of trustees reported in 2004 that "[p]resent tax rates would be sufficient to pay 73 percent of scheduled benefits" after 2042 and "68 percent of scheduled benefits in 2078."

http://mediamatters.org/research/200502040014

[Mons Venus]

small clip watch at the end how half of the audience doesnt applaud either

Very interesting,,,,,,, it appears Bush is reading from Obama's teleprompter.