Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) brought the August town hall boorishness to Washington when he shouted 'you lie' at President Obama. Wilson gives Obama a taste of town hall

On his Twitter feed Tuesday, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) wrote that at a parade he attended in Chapin, “many people called out to oppose Obamacare, which I assured them would be relayed tomorrow to D.C.”

It wasn’t quite the next day, but Wilson did indeed bring the August town hall boorishness to Washington when he shouted “you lie” at President Barack Obama during Wednesday night’s health care speech before Congress.


Within 15 minutes after Obama wrapped up his remarks, Wilson’s website server had crashed and his Wikipedia page had been locked on account of “vandalism.”

In an interview with CNN immediately after the president’s address, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Wilson’s behavior “totally disrespectful” and joined a chorus of Democrats calling on the congressman to apologize.

Wilson’s office soon followed with a statement expressing regret for the outburst.

“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill,” Wilson said. “While I disagree with the president’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility.”

A short while later, Wilson’s office put out a notice that the congressman had called the White House to personally apologize. A Democratic source told POLITICO that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel accepted the congressman’s apology.

This is not the first time that Wilson has stirred controversy with his remarks.

In 2004, Wilson was forced to do a similar walk-back when he challenged the patriotism of Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), calling the Democrat “viscerally anti-American.”

That same year, Wilson grabbed headlines again when he called on Sen. John Kerry to apologize for testimony the Democratic presidential candidate and Vietnam veteran gave to a Senate panel in 1971 about the Vietnam War.

“Many veterans, including myself as a veteran,” Wilson said at the time, “view John Kerry’s testimony that day as one of the worst public slanders ever against the valor and character of the American military.”

That statement drew the rebuke of former Democratic Sen. and Vietnam veteran Max Cleland, who noted that Wilson had in fact avoided fighting in the war by receiving a student deferral.

In addition, Wilson has chosen to align himself with more outspoken members of his caucus. He was, for example, a staunch defender of former Republican Minority Leader Tom DeLay, throughout DeLay’s political and legal travails.

Despite all this, Wilson’s reputation in the House has, up to this point, largely been that of a genial and mild-mannered legislator, known for handing out keychains and business cards to visitors.

According to a profile in The State, Wilson got his start in politics in 1958, after distributing brochures and putting up yard signs for Democrat gubernatorial candidate Fritz Hollings. In the story, Wilson described himself as "a good guy who tries to do right, who tries to be a good citizen, a good husband and good father."

The Charleston native worked on the Hill for former Sen. Strom Thurmond and as a lawyer in Ronald Reagan’s Department of Energy. He practiced law in South Carolina for a quarter-century before winning his House seat during a 2001 special election.

Though he didn’t serve in Vietnam, Wilson did join the Army Reserves and spent 26 years in the Army National Guard. His four sons have each served in the military, as well. The congressman currently sits on the House Armed Services Committee.

Wilson’s press-released mea culpa did little to dam the onslaught of condemnation Wednesday night.

“I have seen every president address a joint session of Congress in the past 23 years,” said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), “in good times and bad. I have never heard any member of Congress yell out during a speech and call the president a liar.”

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said that his fellow South Carolinian “took our state’s reputation to a new low.”

“I thought Mark Sanford had taken it as low as it could go, but this is beyond the pale."

Clyburn further took the opportunity to air his grievances over Wilson holding a town hall meeting last month at the high school three blocks from Clyburn’s house, a perceived affront that has stuck in the Democrat’s craw for the past few weeks.

“That's the kind of guy Joe Wilson is,” Clyburn said. “He loves confronting people. So he was confronting the president, just as he was confronting me."

The controversy could also confront Wilson’s son, Alan, who recently announced his intentions to vie for the job of South Carolina attorney general. But the more immediate and global question is what the shout meant in terms of the health care debate and how much damage Wilson did to his side’s efforts.

As one Democrat leadership aide gleefully put it late Wednesday night: “For a back-bencher, he found a way to garner national attention pretty quickly — but the wrong kind of attention. He also helped reinforce the negative image of a shrinking Republican Party. This outburst will be his legacy.”

— Patrick O’Connor and Jonathan Martin contributed to this story.