SC voters surprised by Wilson's 'You lie' outburst

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-11 11:50

But Wilson's shout is giving a financial boost to his Democratic opponent, Rob Miller, who is challenging the incumbent in 2010. In the first 24 hours after Wilson's outburst, Miller's campaign coffers swelled by $500,000, according to Jessica Santillo of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The contribution, she said, came in from 14,000 individual contributions. It's not clear whether the people who made the donations live in South Carolina.

The Republican Congressional Campaign Committee didn't respond to questions about donations to his own campaign. All of Wilson's voicemail boxes were full.

Miller said Wilson should apologize to his district too. Last year, Miller gave Wilson his most serious challenge since winning a 2001 special election to fill the vacancy left by the death of Republican Floyd Spence.

"As a retired South Carolina National Guard colonel, he should have known better. It's disrespectful to our commander in chief in a setting where the world was watching," Miller, a former Marine who runs on online military memorabilia business, said from his home in Beaufort. "It was childish."

The district stretches across 10 counties from central to coastal South Carolina and hasn't elected a Democrat to Congress since 1965. It encompasses wide economic contrasts: Allendale County has the state's highest unemployment rate — 22.5 percent in July — while Lexington County has the lowest rate at 8 percent.

His district is also home to some of the state's largest military installations: the Army's Fort Jackson outside Columbia, and two major Marine Corps facilities — Parris Island Training Depot and the Marine Corps Air Station — both near Beaufort.

At least three members of Wilson's voluntary, minority advisory committee said they resigned Thursday.

"I didn't personally want to be associated with that sort of inappropriateness toward the president of the United States of America," said J.T. McLawhorn, executive director of the Columbia Urban League, who's served on the group since Wilson formed it a decade ago.

"It's just a sad day for us in South Carolina," McLawhorn said. "The perception to people outside of South Carolina is that we just live in a negative environment here."

Wilson is known in Congress for giving one-minute speeches when the floor is open for short statements on any topic, but he has been confrontational in the past.

During the 2004 presidential campaign, he demanded that Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., apologize for his 1971 comments criticizing those who served in Vietnam. Former Democratic Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, defended Kerry and called Wilson a "chicken hawk" for supporting military action without going to war. However, two of Wilson's sons have served in Iraq.

In 2003, Wilson called it "unseemly" for the mixed-race daughter of Sen. Strom Thurmond, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, to identify the longtime South Carolina senator as her father after his death.

"It's a smear on the image that (Thurmond) has as a person of high integrity who has been so loyal to the people of South Carolina," he told The State newspaper of Columbia. Wilson had worked as an intern in Thurmond's office. After a public outcry, he said he had the utmost respect for Washington-Williams.

Wilson's eldest son, Alan — who is running for state attorney general — agreed Thursday that his father chose the wrong place to vent, but said the heckle shows that "what the president said really struck a chord."

"He is a very even-keel and calm person. My dad never gets upset," Alan Wilson said. "Last night, Dad's emotions got the better of him. ... I'm proud of my father for apologizing for the venue he voiced his opposition. I'm also proud of him for calling the president out."

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