If you missed Rep. Joe Wilson‘s (R-S.C.) heckling of President Obama during last night’s Congressional address, you can catch—or hear—his loutish behavior below. Since then, of course, the pro-wiretapping, anti-health care Republican has “apologized” directly to President Obama but, amusingly, the fallout keeps floating his way. As The Nation‘s Ari Mebler posts:
Beyond criticism and a swift apology, the incident has already provided a fundraising bonanza for Wilson’s opponent, Rob Miller, a Democrat and Marine Corps veteran. Miller raised over $50,000 in just a few hours after Wilson’s outburst, after activists and small donors flooded his page on ActBlue. Bloggers and readers at Daily Kos, a popular liberal blog, also used the site to instantly create a dedicated fundraising page highlighting the incident. The portal, titled “Defeating the man who yelled ‘liar’ at Obama: Goodbye Rep Joe Wilson,” has already raised $35,000 for Wilson from over 1,050 individual donors.
Adrian Arroyo, an official with ActBlue, noted that Rep. Wilson’s antics struck such a strong chord, references to “you lie” on Twitter even surpassed Jay-Z, the popular musician who has led chatter on the site in anticipation of his new album debuting this week.
UPDATE: By Thursday afternoon, Miller’s haul topped $300,000 from over 8,000 donors.