Soccer Dad: Full of himself

December 25, 2006

Full of himself

Senator-elect James Webb had a Q & A session with the NYT's Deborah Solomon in yesterday's NYT Magazine. In it there's this exchange.

You have seen President Bush, with whom you had a famously tense exchange at a White House reception shortly after the election.
I think that was vastly overblown.

Bush, according to the story, asked you about your son, a marine serving in Iraq. You replied that you�d like to get the troops out of Iraq, prompting Bush to say: �I didn�t ask you that. How�s your boy?�

I think what I said was appropriate.

Yes. I was surprised that it erupted into a national debate about manners and etiquette, which seems so trivial compared with the issue of ending the war.

This was something that emanated from the White House. I did not say anything about this for two weeks. I said nothing publicly at all.

(Italics are the questions; Webb's responses are in a regular font.)

Something seemed wrong about this exchange. Riehl World View working off of a prepublication article on the interview at Editor and Publisher observes

First, who is pushing the issue? Webb has been pushing it since at least the end of November and admitted he didn't know the truth. [if the story came from the White House - sd]

and

As you'll see from that link, the primary unnamed source was an unidentified Democrat staffer. It's unclear if said staffer also passed along the bit about the confrontation, but it certainly isn't a stretch.

The link referred to is to this article in the Washington Post that had the reference (that I'm aware of) to exchange between President Bush and Sen. elect Webb. The article appeared two weeks after the event.

But look again at what Webb told Solomon

I did not say anything about this for two weeks.

That would be the time of the article in the Washington Post, the main source of the controversy.

The Washington Post article about Webb could best be characterized as flattering. It's hard to

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.

And most of the sources (not just the anonymous one cited by Riehl World View) are Democrats. There's even this quote about Webb that's precious.

"He's not a typical politician. He really has deep convictions," said Schumer, who headed the Senate Democrats' campaign arm.

Typical politicians don't have deep convictions? Present company Chuck?

The whole article is painting Webb as a maverick, I hardly think that the material is coming from adversarial source.

So, yes, I think that Webb is full of it (and quite full of himself - though that's a quality he has in common with most politicians). He's the one - or it's been his partisans - who has/have carefully cultivated the tiff with the President. While there's no proof this is true, most indicators suggest that it is.

(And no the President wasn't rude to him. Had Webb answered the President's question with "I'd prefer not to discuss my son's situation right now," then the President's response was out of line. But Webb tried to score some political points; the President was correct in his handling of the question. If he had not wanted to speak with the President he should have declined the invitation. Going to the event and being churlish, though, was a much more effective way of raising his profile.)

Blogdigger tags: James Webb, George Bush.