Joe Wilson: South Carolina's Latest Headline

When President Obama said that his health-care reform plan would not cover illegal immigrants, quite a few Republicans murmured their disapproval. But only one shouted out, "You lie!" With that one break in decorum and protocol, Rep. Joe Wilson became the latest little-known South Carolina politician to make headlines.

Wilson's record is staunchly conservative, and his resume includes serving as deputy counsel in the Department of Energy during the Reagan administration. But as an article in The State newspaper in South Carolina reported, the 62-year-old has, "over a quarter century in politics . . . carefully honed his image as a courteous warrior."

As USA Today reported, Wilson called for bipartisanship in the health-care debate during a town-hall-style meeting last month. "I give a speech every day on the floor [of Congress] about how Democrats and Republicans should be working together to reform health care," The State quoted Wilson as saying.

Republican John McCain called the outburst "totally disrespectful" and House Democratic Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina said it was "embarrassing." Clyburn referenced Gov. Mark Sanford, and said, "Now we got one of our Congress people to drive our reputation to a new low."

Wilson, a Charleston native, has spent the last eight years in the House representing the state's 2nd congressional district, which runs from the capital of Columbia to the resort towns of Beaufort and Hilton Head.

He served in the U.S. Army Reserve and as staff judge advocate in the South Carolina Army National Guard. All four of his sons were Eagle Scouts and served in the military. One of them, Alan Wilson, a veteran of the Iraq war, announced this week that he will seek the Republican nomination for state attorney general next year.

Joe Wilson has long been entrenched in South Carolina life and politics, working as a young man as an aide to former Sen. Strom Thurmond. After earning a law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1972, he worked as a real estate attorney and co-founded the law firm Kirkland, Wilson, Moore, Taylor & Thomas, where he practiced for over 25 years. He was also a judge. He served in the S.C. senate from 1972 to 2001, when he ran for the seat of Congressman Floyd Spence, who died.

In a 2007 profile by the McClatchy Washington bureau, Wilson said his most important vote was the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. That second round of Bush tax cuts "has resulted in . . . years of economic growth, coupled with 51 consecutive months of job growth creating 8.3 million additional jobs," he said.

Wilson has been in similar trouble for his statements. During debate on the Iraq War in 2002, he called Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) "viscerally anti-American" with a deep-seated "hatred of America" after Filner suggested the United States supplied chemical and biological weapons to Iraq. Wilson later pulled back from the remarks.

That year, he also called on Sen. John Kerry to apologize for his 1971 testimony to a Senate committee about the Vietnam War. Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland then pointed out that Wilson had received a student deferment.

Wilson is on the Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Education and Labor committees.

His comments during Obama's address have triggered an outpouring of cash to the campaign of his 2010 Democratic opponent Rob Miller, who lost to Wilson -- 54 percent to 46 percent -- in 2008. It was the tightest contest in Wilson's congressional career, attributed by analysts to the high African-American turnout.

Wilson's official congressional Web site has been off-line for most of the day. Visitors get the message: "Due to exceptionally high traffic, this site is temporarily unavailable."