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U.S. Representative Harry Teague was one of just 12 Democrats to vote against a motion of disapproval against U.S. Representative Joe Wilson, R-S.C., for Wilson’s outburst of “You Lie!” during President Barack Obama’s address on healthcare to a joint session of Congress. The motion passed 240-179 on a mostly party-line vote.
Seven Republicans voted with the Democrats and five Democrats voted “present” in addition to the aforementioned 12 Democrats who voted with the Republicans.
Those who voted against their party were a varied crew; while Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., being on the opposite side of a vote is not a surprise, Flake voting with the Democratic majority and Kucinich voting with the Republican majority is not normal (VoteView ranks Kucinich as the fifth most liberal member of the House and Flake as the fourth most conservative).
U.S. Representatives Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan, both Democrats, voted for the motion of disapproval.
The resolution said the motion came because of “the conduct of the Representative from South Carolina was a breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session, to the discredit of the House.”
Wilson yelled at Obama when the president said, “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.”
Both the non-partisan Politifact and Factcheck.org found that Obama was not, in fact, lying when he said those who are here illegally will not be covered.
Here is the full text of the resolution:
H. Res. 744
Raising a question of the privileges of the House.
Whereas on September 9, 2009, during the joint session of Congress convened pursuant to House Concurrent Resolution 179, the President of the United States, speaking at the invitation of the House and Senate, had his remarks interrupted by the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson; and
Whereas the conduct of the Representative from South Carolina was a breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session, to the discredit of the House: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives disapproves of the behavior of the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson, during the joint session of Congress held on September 9, 2009.
For more on Wilson, the New Mexico Independent’s sister site the Washington Independent has been following the story.
