Reply #44: Wilson links to a Freeper post to support his opinion piece. What does that tell you?

[calmblueocean]

It's right here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-wilson/battletested_b_86355.html

Worse than that, though, is how Wilson shamelessly misrepresents the exchange.

Here's a link to the whole exchange of letters by McCain and Obama: http://obama.senate.gov/letter/060206-sen_obama_and_sen_mccain_exchange_letters_on_ethics_reform/

McCain invites Obama to participate in a meeting to discuss lobbying and ethics reform. Obama shows up, listens to what McCain is proposing, and tells him that he is glad to work with him, but the Democratic caucus insists ethics reform proceed through the normal committee process. He writes a letter to McCain to thank him for reaching out to him, and reviewing what was said in the meeting.

McCain has a tantrum because he feels that Obama's work on the stronger Democratic bill on its way through committee will be used to score political points against Republicans. He "apologizes" to Obama for assuming that Obama was sincere about working on bipartisan legislation. McCain's letter is childish and embarrassing. Go ahead and read it yourself. It shows someone with real anger management problems.

So what does Obama do? He writes McCain a cordial letter in response.

"The fact that you have now questioned my sincerity and my desire to put aside politics for the public interest is regrettable but does not in any way diminish my deep respect for you nor my willingness to find a bipartisan solution to this problem."

This is the mature thing to do -- something a diplomat like Wilson perfectly understands.

And it was the right thing to do -- because the ethics reform McCain was proposing was inferior.

So when Wilson writes:

"Mr. McCain was insultingly dismissive but successful in intimidating his inexperienced colleague. Thus, in his one face-to-face encounter with Mr. McCain, Mr. Obama failed to stand his ground."

... he's just lying. If McCain had successfully intimidated Obama, Obama would've agreed to work on the weaker ethics reform with him. It's exactly because Obama stood his ground that McCain was so pissed off!

There's no way to read Wilson's remarks here as anything other than straight out lying. It's sad and shameful. Wilson obviously knows better. Too bad most of the people reading his piece won't know the facts. Joe Wilson's reputation -- and Hillary's -- took a major hit with this smear piece.