I agree with you completely Rumpole. I think a lot of people are missing or dismissing the point of just how very disgraceful Wilson's behavior was and what truly prompted it.

It has been self evident all year as the racist, mostly older white people have foamed at the mouth, howled at the moon, even brought out their guns for God's sake and generally made a spectacle of themselves that racism (now forced underground and unspoken but as potent and hateful as ever)is driving it all from the birthers to the death panel liars. Wilson did what he did because he (like the other tea baggers)wants desperately to scream and shout at that black man who got elected. He,like the rest of his racist fellow travelers would love to openly hurl the racial epithets that are in their heads and on the tips of their tongues when they are safely alone with their own kind. But they know that it is no longer acceptable to publicly say or scream those kinds of things directly so they redirect their venom to the phantom issues they cling to like the lie about illegal immigrants getting a free ride on healthcare if reform passes Congress. That Wilson could not contain his racism on that particularly racist canard says much about his motivation.