The president held a private reception at the White House shortly after the election for newly-elected members of Congress. Sen.-elect Jim [tag]Webb[\/tag] (D-Va.), whose son is a Marine lance corporal serving in Iraq, attended, but had no interest in being phony — Webb skipped the presidential receiving line and declined to have his picture taken with the president.<\/p>\n
Bush nevertheless approached Webb at the event. They had an interesting conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n “How’s your boy?” [tag]Bush[\/tag] asked, referring to Webb’s son, a Marine serving in Iraq.<\/p>\n “I’d like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,” Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.<\/p>\n “That’s not what I asked you,” Bush said. “How’s your boy?”<\/p>\n “That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President,” Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “That’s not what I asked you<\/i>“? How about, “I’d like to bring all the troops home, too, and I’m looking forward to the day when I can.” Or maybe, “It has to be tough being the father of a Marine who’s in Iraq right now and I wish you the best.”<\/p>\n But not Mr. Diplomacy. No, Bush used his bizarre sense of charm to pester Webb about the son the president put in harm’s way. A source close to Webb told The Hill<\/a> that the senator-elect was so angered by the exchange that he was tempted to slug Bush, but obviously restrained himself. Good move.<\/p>\n One thing I don’t quite understand is why so many on the right think Bush acted appropriately and Webb didn’t. What am I missing here?<\/p>\n Regardless, Webb is entering the Senate with the kind of no-nonsense attitude that too many in his position lack.<\/p>\n If the exchange with Bush two weeks ago is any indication, Webb won’t be a wallflower, especially when it comes to the war in Iraq. And he won’t stick to a script drafted by top Democrats.<\/p>\n “I’m not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall,” Webb said in an interview yesterday in which he confirmed the exchange between him and Bush. “No offense to the institution of the presidency, and I’m certainly looking forward to working with him and his administration. [But] leaders do some symbolic things to try to convey who they are and what the message is.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) told the WaPo that the first-time officeholder doesn’t have the finesse of most experienced politicians and isn’t a “backslapper.”<\/p>\n “There are no senators who have that everyday anxiety that he has as a dad with a youngster on the front lines. That gives him gravitas and credibility on this issue,” Kaine said. “People in the Senate, I’m sure, will agree with him or disagree with him on issue to issue. But they won’t doubt that he’s coming at it from a real sense of duty.”<\/p>\n I like him already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The president held a private reception at the White House shortly after the election for newly-elected members of Congress. Sen.-elect Jim [tag]Webb[\/tag] (D-Va.), whose son is a Marine lance corporal serving in Iraq, attended, but had no interest in being phony — Webb skipped the presidential receiving line and declined to have his picture taken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nOne conservative accused Webb of “classlessness<\/a>.” Another called Webb “disgusting<\/a>.” Yet another called Webb a “juvenile Bush hater<\/a>.”<\/p>\n