Handling Hecklers 101

        

    Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley puts on a clinic on how to heckle a speaker at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago

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        It seems only fitting that Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican congressman, would be the one to heckle the president of the United States during a speech to Congress last week.
        After all, the last time a president was interrupted at the Capitol, another Wilson, Woodrow Wilson was standing on the dais during a State of the Union address on December 15, 1916, when a group of women protestors leaned over the front railing in the House chamber and unfurled a large yellow banner, which read ``President Wilson: What Will You Do For Woman Suffrage?”   
        According to associate Senate historian Don Ritchie, ``the women remained silent but the banner “heckled” the president until a page boy, sitting on a staff member’s shoulders, yanked it down.’’
        Ever since that unpleasant episode, visitors to the House and Senate galleries have been prohibited from leaning over the railings.
        Almost a full week after Mr. Wilson yelled out ``You lie’’ during the president’s address to Congress on health care, and despite the Republican Congressman calling the president soon after to offer his apology, while Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi initially said it was ``time to move on’’, Democrats are still planning to push forward with a "resolution of disapproval’’ if Wilson doesn’t apologize on the floor of Congress. Wilson told Fox News on Sunday: ``"I am not going to apologize again. I have apologized to the president. I believe that is sufficient."
        Whether both parties use this storm to awaken their party base who are getting an earful whether  a ``public option’’ is on or off the table, whether government intrusion is good or bad, only time will tell. But it will be fascinating to observe if this concocted theater divides Congress just at a time when the president is trying to unite them, at least enough to negotiate a health care reform agreement.

        NOTE: For a list of disciplinary actions taken by the House of the Representatives involving ``Expulsion, Censure, Reprimand, and Fines'', see this Congressional Research Service report [PDF]
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        A short political history of heckling

        Although there haven’t been any known cases of other lawmakers heckling their own president before last week’s outburst, other president’s and high profile public officials have met with their share of heckling from the public.
        In February, 1966, President Lyndon Johnson was delivering a speech at the Waldolf-Astoria, when a war pacifist stood up and shouted ``Peace in Vietnam’’ 
        Johnson proceeded with his speech without missing a beat. The heckler, James D. Peck, who was charged with resisting arrest, disrupting a lawful meeting, and held on $3,000 bail, reportedly had his face cut by police and was seen bleeding as he was whisked out of the hotel.
        The nerve of a heckler disrupting his speech, infuriated Vice President Richard Nixon in October, 1954, when delivering an address at a San Mateo High School auditorium, someone shouted ``Tell us a dog story Dick.’’ The vice president wouldn’t let such a boorish comment go unnoticed.  As the heckler (later identified as James Heavey of San Francisco) tried to make a quick exit, Nixon ordered the Secret Service to have him restrained. Nixon then told his audience that he has made 200 speeches in 22 states and this was the first time he had been heckled. 
        Nixon concluded his speech by telling authorities, ``OK boys, throw him out.’’  Nixon’s lecture, in the irony of all ironies, was on the subject of ``freedom of speech.’’
        Others have resorted to humor while being heckled. Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, for example, was reportedly once giving a speech at the United Nations when a group of Puerto Ricans separatists, sitting in the front row of the mezzanine gallery, began shouting at him. Haig stopped in his tracks, looked up and said he was having a hard time hearing the demonstrators, ``but if you would step forward just a few feet I’m sure I could hear you a lot better’’. As the audience roared with laughter, the demonstrators sat down without any further interruptions.
        According to Granville E. Toogood’s book, ``The Articulate Executive: Learn to Look, Act, and Sound like a Leader’’, the three basic principles any effective speaker must learn when confronted with a heckler are as follows: a.) Be firm, b.) Be courteous c.) Control the situation.
        Based on these guiding principles, when Congressman Wilson blurted out: ``You Lie!”’ the president handled such shocking behavior in text-book style: with composure and self-restraint, continuing on with his speech as if nothing had happened. 
        Still, it would have been far more interesting if Obama tore a page out of Al Haig’s ``Heckler’s Playbook’’, and had asked Mr. Wilson if you would only step a few feet closer, he might be able to hear him a little better. Such a brash reply would have surely brought down the House.

 -Bill Lucey
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