News Roundup for 9/15/09

Rep. Joe Wilson

-Headline of the day-
"Mrs. Joe Wilson: My husband is the 'nut' who 'hollered out, "you lie."'

If you've been wondering what the hell the deal is with South Carolina, we get a little peek, courtesy of Joe Wilson's wife. In a campaign video for his re-election, Roxanne Wilson says, "I watched the speech. Joe called me after the speech on Wednesday night and I said, 'Joe who's the nut who hollered out "you lie," "you liar"?' And he goes, 'It was me.' And I said, 'No really! Who did it?' I couldn't believe that Joe would say that!"

Remember, this is a campaign video. Roxie's basically saying that she's convinced her husband is a "nut" -- and this is a good thing. Somewhere along the line, sanity has become pretentious in South Carolina and insanity has become a sort of homespun virtue. If you're not goofy, you're a big elitist phony.

So, if you ever go to South Carolina to visit, wear a birdcage on your head or something. People will think you're a local. (Think Progress, with video)


-Quote of the day-
"In 2007 I finally made it to the Bush White House as a presidential speechwriter. But it was not at all what I envisioned. It was less like Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing and more like The Office."
-Former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer in his new book Speech Less: Tales of a White House Survivor.

I would've said "more like The Office -- only as a tragedy rather than a comedy." But, hey, it's close enough for government work. (Political Wire)


-Bonus HotD-
"George Bush said Palin was ill prepared: 'Is she the Governor of Guam?'"

More from Latimer's book. It's not clear from the context whether he was kidding or not when he asked the Guam question. Latimer does say "his eyes twinkled" when he asked, but that could've just been all the booze. Bush went on to say, "This woman is being put into a position she is not even remotely prepared for. She hasn’t spent one day on the national level. Neither has her family. Let’s wait and see how she looks five days out."

According to Latimer, this was the most important thing anyone had said about anyone ever. "It was a rare dose of reality in a White House that liked to believe every decision was great, every Republican was a genius, and McCain was the hope of the world because, well, because he chose to be a member of our party," he writes.

I've got an alternate headline for this piece, "It took more than eight years, but we finally found something Bush was right about." (Crooks and Liars)