HE'S NAKED!

It's a well known story, The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen. A pompous potentate parades his pampered posterior along the promenade for all to see his exquisite garments that are of such fine quality, they are invisible to anyone too stupid to see them.

Eventually, a child rightly shouts, "the emperor is naked," and the crowd realizes someone finally had the guts to speak the truth. The emperor however, continues his passage down the city streets, too arrogant to admit the truth.

Last night, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson shouted the equivalent of "the emperor is naked" when he called out "You lie!" during president Barak Obama's address on health care.

Congressman Wilson, you saw the truth and you spoke the truth. It may not have been proclaimed with all the delicacy and diplomacy called for in the lauded marble halls of Capitol Hill, but I have found that the truth is often a stumbling stone.

In Andersen's story, the reaction to the boy's shout is revealing: "'Fool!' his father reprimanded, running after him. 'Don't talk nonsense!' He grabbed his child and took him away." Today's headlines and politicians seem more bent on reprimanding Joe Wilson than admitting what was exposed for all to see — the president's plan is naked. More costly than the emperor's new clothes, sold to the public by savvy hawkers, but naked nonetheless.

It does not take a lot of political reason to understand what is really transparent. The House has a 1,000-plus-page plan and the Senate has their version, making it a shell game to try and follow which plan the president was either taking credit for or referring to. Regardless, non-documented "Americans" will very likely be insured.

On the campaign trail, Barak Obama promised us transparency. I simply did not expect this kind of transparency.