There's got to be something in the water down in South Carolina. You'd think we'd be talking about the substance of President Barack Obama's address to Congress on health care. Instead the talk of the 24/7 chat fests online and on cable has been about Rep. Joe Wilson, the South Carolina Republican who yelled out, "You Lie" as the President promised that his proposed health care reform would not provide insurance to illegal immigrants.

That outburst broke the strict protocol of the House of Representatives. Members can, and do, call each other every name in the book when they're off the floor. But on the floor they are not even supposed to use personal names. It's "the distinguished gentlemen from the state of where-ever" or "the honorable gentlewoman from this place or that." It all makes things a little boring, if you ask me and I'm not sure where this tradition came from. Members of the Continental Congress were experts at name calling and disputes not infrequently rose to the physical, duels with walking sticks right on the floor. To this day members of the British Parliament heckle each other and government leaders during the Prime Minister's question hour. It makes for a much better show.

But in Washington what is now known as the "Congressman's Shocking Outburst" on the pro-Obama channel and "Congressman's frustration boils over" on the anti-Obama channel grabs the headlines. Better to debate this at the water-cooler than to have a serious discussion about health care.

The president doesn't need me to defend him. His quick retort, "It's not true" did the trick. For the sake of something I'll just note that The Wall Street Journal, no friend to the administration or health care reform, in its story about the speech reported,"... the Democratic bills circulating in Congress do exclude illegal immigrants from eligibility for subsidies."

Rep. Wilson did not get much support from other Republicans in Congress, and he did issue an apology, apparently after being strong-armed by the Republican leadership, calling his comments "inappropriate and regrettable." But what strikes me about all this is that once again we have a critical discussion derailed by disruptive forces more interested in stifling debate than in addressing the issue.

The bill known as H.R. 3200 does contain, see Section 246, language prohibiting payments to "individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States." But it does not require applicants be checked for eligibility. Democrats say they may change the language to add that requirement. This says to me that Rep. Wilson could have made his point and influenced the legislation if he made his concerns known in an appropriate way. But being constructive does not appear to be Wilson's goal.

In this Rep. Wilson is following in the footsteps of his fellow South Carolinian Jim DeMint, a first-term Republican Senator. Sen. DeMint is known for fanning the flames at town-meetings, spreading the canards about insurance for illegals and "death panels". DeMint made a name for himself opposing the Democratic health plan during a conference call with conservative activists. As reported by Politico.com, DeMint said, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." For DeMint, as for Wilson, the goal is simply to bring down the President.

As for the uninsured, Sen. DeMint has introduced his own plan, S. 1240. What I see is a proposal to give the uninsured vouchers, $5,000 for a household, to purchase their own policies with nothing to guarantee that such policies would be available at that, or any other price. I don't see anything about funding in the DeMint bill either. DeMint proposes elsewhere to raise money through the repeal of the financial assistance programs for financial institutions which, most experts believe would result in the failure of several of the nation's largest banks.

It would be nice to think that the voters of South Carolina put up with these antics only because they are distracted by the trials and tribulations of their governor, Republican Mark Sanford. Gov. Sanford, you may recall, admitted to an extramarital affair, something about finding his soul mate in Argentina. Alas, the voters of South Carolina seem to enjoy these antics. Both Wilson and DeMint are up for reelection in 2010 and both are considered shoo-ins. It must be the water.