The man who shouted "you lie" in the midst of the President's address to a joint session of Congress last night is getting such an enormous response that his House web page has crashed, as has his campaign website, which now redirects only to his completecampaigns.com donations page.
Joe Wilson, a Republican Congressman from South Carolina, jumped from his seat last night and thrusted a finger in the air screaming, "you lie!" as the president explained that illegal immigrants would not be covered by government funds under current health care reform the plan. In fact, the bill contains no provision that would extend individuals in the country illegally the opportunity to receive free medical coverage.
Rep. Wilson apologized for his outburst shortly thereafter. In a comment released by his office, Wilson said: "This evening, I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president's remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the president's statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility."
The largely unknown Congressman has garnered an incredible response. Both the House server that hosts is website and the private server that hosts his campaign website have crashed due to an incredibly high volume of traffic to the site, some looking to lambaste the South Carolinian, others to praise him, and still others to simply find out more about aman who has yet to make any national headlines.
Wilson isn't missing the opporuntity to cash in on his for-better-or-for-worse fame. He's redirecting all traffic that would be going to his campaign site to a simple, stripped down site hosted by completecampaigns.com, where visitors are free to make a donation to Wilson's reelection campaign.
