Here he is, folks, Joe Wilson, the elected representative who decided it would be apropos to heckle the President of the United States while addressing a joint session of congress. Perhaps he was miffed that President Obama called out winger heartthrob Sarah Palin as a liar. Or maybe the distinguished gentleman (note: Joe Wilson is apparently neither distinguished nor a gentleman) had been to one too many town hall meetings where this sort of childish whining is seen as “mainstream”.

Sadly, I doubt Representative Wilson will face many repercussions, not from the people of South Carolina, who are likely to see their representative as putting that uppity president in his place, nor from the party who shrugged off Dick Cheney telling Patrick Leahy to “fuck himself” in that very building. I suspect the triumvirate of Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity, not to mention countless frothy wingnut bloggers, will be racing to see who can laud this “heroic American” for “speaking truth to power” first. Perhaps Senator Chambliss will call to congratulate Wilson for humbling the president. [via bcompton]

UPDATE Well, how about that, Representative Wilson called the president personally to apologize for his emotional outburst. Unfortunately, Obama wasn’t available to take the call, which was instead fielded by – and I’m truly sorry there’s no transcript available from this – Rahm Emmanuel.