He's Bonzo, Not Reagan

Congressman Joe Wilson, famous for heckling the President during an address, has been invited to headline a conference on leadership at the Reagan Ranch. Wilson's selection is a poor choice and a sad decline from the standards set by President Reagan.

Last week, the Young America's Foundation (YAF) sent out an email blast urging members to twitter the fact that Congressman Joe Wilson would be headlining their annual conference on leadership at the Reagan Ranch.

YAF urged potential participants to ‘RESIST’ (what, exactly?) by attending the West Coast Leadership Conference at Reagan’s old digs in Santa Barbara, California:

Those who knew Reagan describe him as the polar opposite of Rep. Joe Wilson – or at least the public image that Wilson has established. President Reagan “was even-tempered. When you look back on it, over eight years in California, eight years as President, he never attacked people in [Joe Wilson's] sense... Reagan is a different kind of a person... He didn't get upset,” pointed out Martin Anderson, co-author of three books on Ronald Reagan and one of the late President’s senior policy advisors.

When asked by NewMajority what Ronald Reagan might have thought of him speaking at the Reagan Ranch, Representative Wilson admitted that he “made a mistake [and] acted inappropriately,” noting that he had offered an apology to the White House. Wilson hypothesized that “Reagan would have... accepted my apology and moved on.”

YAF spokesperson Jason Mattera defended Joe Wilson in an interview with NewMajority, asserting that Wilson has “been a conservative leader in the House with a solid conservative voting record... students want to hear him. He’s a gutsy guy who is bold and says it like it is.”

But the fact remains that Rep. Wilson's only claim to notability was his interruption of the President of the United States during a joint session of Congress. Had he not displayed incredible rudeness during the President’s speech, it is highly unlikely that he would have been invited to talk at the YAF conference.

It's a poor recommendation for a position of leadership - and a sad decline from the standards set by the great president at whose ranch Wilson will speak- presumably uninterrupted by jeering.