Joe Wilson could pay price for telling Obama ‘You Lie’

Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina, the Republican who shouted "You lie!" at Barack Obama during the president's speech to Congress on healthcare reform, could find his outburst proves fatal to his political career.

Wilson's interruption earned him censure from his own party in Washington. Failed presidential candidate John McCain deemed the five-term congressman "totally disrespectful" and said the Capitol was "no place" for such heckling.

The social and fiscal conservative Wilson was contrite afterwards - he admitted his comments were “inappropriate and regrettable” - and apologised to the President for his “lack of civility". But that may not be enough. Some political commentators are suggesting that Wilson's outburst could endanger his chances of hanging on to his seat in next year's mid-term elections.

Writing in the Washington Post, Ben Evans and Meg Kinnard cite the examples of Republican Senator George Allen of Virginia, who lost his seat in 2006 after using an ethnic slur against a political opponent, and Cynthia McKinney, a black Democrat representative who was unseated after striking a police officer when he denied her entry to the Capitol the same year.

"Voters often frown on rude conduct, and Democrats would like nothing more than to have Mr Wilson's seat," Evans and Kinnard note. Of course, the authors go on to say, Wilson could find that his stance against the president endears him to some voters. Reports that the congressman has received $2m in donations since the incident appear to bear this out.

However the maths in his congressional district, which takes in South Carolina's state capital Columbia, do not work in Wilson's favour. In last year's election he won with just 54 per cent of the vote against a freshman Democrat challenger. This was way down from highs of 84 per cent in 2002 and 63 per cent in 2006.

With former President Jimmy Carter, comedian Bill Cosby and filmmaker Spike Lee among those arguing that there was racism behind the "You lie!" barb, the quarter of Wilson's electorate who are black could be galvanised to get out the vote accordingly. ·