# The sanction for disrupting a Presidential address should be immediate removal from the chambers **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 11, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633 "2009-09-11T01:19:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/1 "2009-09-11T01:19:51Z")
I don’t care what or how you express an opinion privately, but we should not let that particular forum be turned into a circus. There should be a follow-on policy to Mr Wilson’s recent rudeness: Disrupt a presidential speech and you are escorted out on your ass on the spot. I rather wish Mr Obama would have dismissed him out at the time but I realize the President was probably too nonplussed. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/2 "2009-09-11T01:23:53Z")
Wouldn’t this thoroughly disrupt the proceedings and make an instant martyr out of the brave maverick who dared speak his mind only to be repressed by the president’s jackbooted thugs? ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/3 "2009-09-11T01:33:27Z")
I thought it was uncool, but then again, the British are far more–passionate? entertaining?–in the video I’ve seen of some of their proceedings and addresses. I rather like that people are being truer to their emotion rather than being All Formal and Stuff, but then again, heckling the president? Eh, why not. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/4 "2009-09-11T01:45:41Z")
Jack Wilson is a sitting member of Congress. Barak Obama was only a guest there. The proper thing would have been to have him escorted out by Nancy Polosi’s jackbooted thugs. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/5 "2009-09-11T03:14:20Z")
Nope. This causes a much bigger disruption than the actual event. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/6 "2009-09-11T07:15:28Z")
Even if he had committed an actual crime, he could not be arrested while on the floor of the Congress (US Constitution, Article 1, section 6). And calling the President a liar is not a crime – that whole Freedom of Speech thing. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/7 "2009-09-11T19:41:44Z")
Our Congress is NOT the British House of Commons, where a certainamount of sniping seems to be normal. Wilson was being a dick. I would have noproblem with Congressional bailiffs escorting him out than I would to ushers throwing a noisy drunk out of a movie theater. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/8 "2009-09-11T19:45:13Z")
> [@Ruffian](#): > > I thought it was uncool, but then again, the British are far more–passionate? entertaining?–in the video I’ve seen of some of their proceedings and addresses. I rather like that people are being truer to their emotion rather than being All Formal and Stuff, but then again, heckling the president? > > Eh, why not. > [@astorian](#): > > Our Congress is NOT the British House of Commons, where a certainamount of sniping seems to be normal. > > Wilson was being a dick. I would have noproblem with Congressional bailiffs escorting him out than I would to ushers throwing a noisy drunk out of a movie theater. To be fair, I believe that calling the speaker a liar is in fact not allowed in the (admittedly more boisterous) House of Commons, either. Having trouble coming up with a cite, though. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/9 "2009-09-11T19:49:03Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > To be fair, I believe that calling the speaker a liar is in fact not allowed in the (admittedly more boisterous) House of Commons, either. Having trouble coming up with a cite, though. How, er, boisterous do they get? It sounds pretty ugly sometimes with cat calls and such, but I can’t understand British folks when they are speaking, let alone screaming. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/10 "2009-09-11T19:51:43Z")
Agree that this would just make a bigger spectacle and make the asshat an even bigger hero for his supporters. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/11 "2009-09-11T23:58:12Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Our Congress is NOT the British House of Commons, where a certainamount of sniping seems to be normal. > > Wilson was being a dick. I would have noproblem with Congressional bailiffs escorting him out than I would to ushers throwing a noisy drunk out of a movie theater. Was Pelosi being a disruption when she popped up like a jack-in-the-box with applause after every 3rd sentence? It’s OK to loudly agree with the President but a sin to disagree? Has congressional applause replaced congregational amens to a preacher-president’s sermon? The Capital building is not church. Members of Congress have always hooted and hollered their displeasure when a President strays too far from the bully pulpit. Wilson hooted out of turn and this was a far cry from the displays of incivility seen in other parliamentary procedures. This happens all the time in the house and the idea that a President’s speech is immune to any form of reaction is pure fantasy. This was not an address to Congress in the same vein as a state of the union address. The President was not invited to speak, he invited himself to a captive audience of elected officials who could not debate the subject directly. All they could do was cheer or jeer. Wilson’s mistake was not what he said, that is his job. By doing so he brought to light an issue which the house is now addressing. No, his mistake was one of protocol for which he should be held to the same standard of every other political blow-hard in the house. ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/12 "2009-09-13T03:50:28Z")
Anyone disruptive in the gallery would have been thrown out. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/13 "2009-09-13T15:49:24Z")
There were reports that in the British House of Commons one dude was thrown out twice for something similar to calling Thatcher a liar. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/14 "2009-09-13T15:54:13Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to Great Debates. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/15 "2009-09-13T16:51:00Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Was Pelosi being a disruption when she popped up like a jack-in-the-box with applause after every 3rd sentence? It’s OK to loudly agree with the President but a sin to disagree? Has congressional applause replaced congregational amens to a preacher-president’s sermon? You’re seriously equating applauding when the President pauses _for applause_ with yelling “You lie!” when he’s speaking? > [@Magiver](#): > > Members of Congress have always hooted and hollered their displeasure when a President strays too far from the bully pulpit. Cite? > [@Magiver](#): > > Wilson hooted out of turn and this was a far cry from the displays of incivility seen in other parliamentary procedures. Wrong. If Wilson were a member of Parliament, he would have been disciplined promptly for his action. > [@Magiver](#): > > This was not an address to Congress in the same vein as a state of the union address. The President was not invited to speak, he invited himself to a captive audience of elected officials who could not debate the subject directly. All they could do was cheer or jeer. That’s the point of a speech. And somehow, I don’t think members of Congress objected to having the President speak, unless they’re as [deleted because of GD] as you. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/16 "2009-09-13T17:33:00Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > The President was not invited to speak, he invited himself to a captive audience of elected officials who could not debate the subject directly. If Republicans did not want to hear from the President on health care, they could have (a) objected to, or voted against, H. Con. Res 179, which passed both the House and Senate on September 8, and called for a joint meeting of Congress “for the purpose of **receiving** such communication as the President of the United States shall be pleased to make to them;” or (b) declined to show up. As much as you wished it were so, Nancy Pelosi didn’t grab all Republicans members of Congress by the ear and frog march them into the House chamber. And Wilson did not hoot. He called someone a liar. If he were in friggin’ Great Debates, a mostly-anonymous Internet message board, a moderator would have told him to knock it off. But he wasn’t on the Internet, he was in the goddamn House of Representatives. If he wanted to shout his displeasure, he should have held his tongue until he could join the tea bagging protesters who are outside the Capitol this weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/17 "2009-09-13T17:42:12Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Our Congress is NOT the British House of Commons, where a certainamount of sniping seems to be normal. More’s the pity, says I. The Brits, with their catcalling and funny wigs, have a much more entertaining political system. But the funny wigs wouldn’t really work for us anymore. I suggest catcalling and superhero costumes for all members of Congress. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/18 "2009-09-13T17:56:23Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I suggest catcalling and superhero costumes for all members of Congress. I agree, something like the [costumed crocs](http://community.livejournal.com/pearlswine/tag/superheroes) in _Pearls Before Swine._ ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/19 "2009-09-13T18:01:09Z")
Oh, I’m happy to let each member of Congress choose their own superhero identity. I think it’d be pretty telling. ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633/20 "2009-09-13T18:43:01Z")
I’m glad Wilson did it; he showed the entire country exactly where he stands, and made the fact that he’s an obnoxious, ultra-right wing asshole as clear as a summer sky. Sure, plenty of…OK, _all_ of, the Republicans are against President Obama’s health care plan, but how many of them are so passionately opposed that they would publically shout out, “Suck my fat one, you fucking, goddamn, chocolate-covered, candy-ass liberal _liar_! I got your ‘health care reform’ tucked in my trousers, fucker!” Not too many, I’m thinking, but I sure wish a few of them would. I also liked it when former vice president Dick Cheney told Patrick Leahy to “fuck off!” It offered an honest, irrefutable glimpse into Cheney’s character. I wish more representatives, from the left or the right, would do or say something obnoxious and inappropriate from time to time. It’s easy to hide who you _really_ are and what you _really_ believe behind a stuffy mask of bullshit manners and faux decorum. Outbursts, insults and cursing would help to clarify who our elected officials are on a much deeper level; once that brain-to-mouth filter is removed, we can see who we’re _really_ dealing with. I also wouldn’t mind a few of those Malaysian/Singaporean/Pacific Rim Parliment-style punching matches once in a while. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sanction-for-disrupting-a-presidential-address-should-be-immediate-removal-from-the-chambers/509633.md?page=2)