Breaking: House votes to censure Wilson, 240-179; Update: 12 Dems vote no, seven Republicans vote yes

I’ll post the roll once it’s available; the only suspense is in seeing if anyone crossed party lines. The text of the resolution:

Whereas on September 9, 2009, during the joint session of Congress convened pursuant to House Concurrent Resolution 179, the President of the United States, speaking at the invitation of the House and Senate, had his remarks interrupted by the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson; and

Whereas the conduct of the Representative from South Carolina was a breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session, to the discredit of the House: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives disapproves of the behavior of the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson, during the joint session of Congress held on September 9, 2009.

Wilson used his floor speech to make the “distraction” argument, which is fine and certainly fair, but like I said yesterday, there has to be some penalty for boorishness. This guy went from total obscurity to grassroots rock star overnight for behaving badly, and the first rule of incentives is that it’s a bad idea to reward bad behavior. Ed’s point this morning about a double standard is well taken but that’s an argument for more discipline of bad actors, not less. This was literally the least they could do to reprimand him; he’ll survive. Stand by for the roll.

Update: Politico tallies up the aisle-crossers:

Even though the vote was largely partisan, there were a few departures from party loyalty. Seven Republicans voted to rebuke Wilson: Rep. Joseph Cao of Louisiana, Joanne Emerson of Missouri, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Walter Jones of North Carolina, Tom Petri of Wisconsin, Dana Rohrabacher of California and fellow South Carolinian Bob Inglis.

But 12 Democrats voted no on the resolution: Michael Arcuri of New York, Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts, Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, Maurice Hinchey of New York, Paul Hodes of New Hampshire, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Dan Maffei of New York, Eric Massa of New York, James McDermott of Washington, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, Gene Taylor of Mississippi and Harry Teague of Arizona.

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