An icy exchange between President Bush and Virginia Sen.-elect James Webb that was made public this week has turned Webb into something of a folk hero among critics of the president, who have longed for someone to challenge his bravado.
At the same time, Webb's refusal to play the gentlemanly political games so common in Washington has angered conservatives and renewed questions about how well he fits with other politicians in a sharply divided Congress, where compromise will be key.
"He already has become what Washington did not need another of, a subtraction from the city's civility and clear speaking," conservative columnist George Will wrote Thursday.
On the campaign trail, Webb rarely minced words about Bush, repeatedly calling the Iraq war "a blunder of historic proportions." At the White House reception last month, Webb said, he tried to avoid interacting with the president. But when Bush walked up to Webb to ask about his son, a Marine in Iraq, Webb hinted at the campaign criticism.
"I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb said, according to a description of the conversation by several people familiar with the exchange. Webb confirmed the account this week.
"That's not what I asked you," Bush replied. "How's your boy?"
"That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb responded.
Norman J. Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said that in the short run, the incident will boost Webb's standing among the part of the electorate that is angry about the Iraq war and eager to see Bush blamed for it.
"People will see he deeply cares about this issue and is willing to stand up to the president," Ornstein said. "He's not going to be driven by the normal proprieties in this business."
Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R), whose daughter was stationed in Iraq this year, said it was Webb who turned the president's question into an issue.
"I understand having a child over in harm's way in Iraq. You take the situation over there much more personally," McDonnell said. "The problem for Mr. Webb is he's got to learn a little bit better about having a sense of decorum. To be an effective U.S. senator, you have to deal in a collegial manner."
But Webb chief of staff Paul J. Reagan said the senator-elect is going to be effective once he takes office next month.
"Sen.-elect Webb is looking forward to a successful term working with the administration and his colleagues in the Senate from both sides of the aisle on the critical issues facing the country," Reagan said. "He does not consider the incident two weeks ago to be consequential."
Ornstein said he doubts whether there will be any long-lasting impact for either Bush or Webb. The president has vetoed only one bill in the six years he has been in office, so it is unlikely he would veto Webb legislation just because of the brief conversation, Ornstein said.
And Webb's influence is likely to extend beyond individual bills. His military background -- and now his reputation for speaking bluntly -- will give him more power in the Senate on the Iraq war and foreign policy, Ornstein said. Webb will serve on the foreign relations and armed services committees.
"The Senate always has a few iconoclasts," he said. "I think the president was trying to be a nice guy. It was classic Webb, in a way, because he feels so strongly about the war."
That is clearly how some people saw it this week.
Among hundreds of comments posted on The Washington Post Web site, many Virginia residents and others praised Webb's courage in standing up to Bush.
"Webb is someone who is going to bring things to [Bush's] attention and let him know that not all these fawning bureaucrats represent what's going on in the nation," said Robert A. Brunner, 79, a retired chef in Fossil, Ore.
"You get the impression that these are all back-slapping cronies and wheeling dealing" in Washington, Brunner said. "I really think he needs someone to pull him up short and say, 'Hey, this is reality.' "
John Zemler, 45, a retired Army captain who teaches scripture and theology at Marquette University, said he was impressed by Webb's rejection of the niceties of Capitol Hill politics.
"I hate when someone campaigns on being different, and then they go to Washington and they're just another gray suit with a red or blue tie," he said. "I don't see that in Jim Webb."
But the conversation rankled others in the country, who said the president was trying to be kind by asking about Webb's son. Many said Webb's responses violated basic tenets of politeness and respect for the presidency.
In an opinion piece published Friday in the Washington Times, R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., a founder of the conservative American Spectator newspaper, compared Webb to Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and John F. Kerry (Mass.), National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, former vice president Al Gore and "so many other Democratic notables as a rebarbative blowhard with whom you would not want to share a gondola."
Tyrrell accused Webb of "boorish behavior" and said he "is going to be a vast source of amusement, and he will fit in nicely with the unpleasant pols whose political base is the Angry Left."
Teri Meintel, 47, a health-care worker from Richmond, was equally critical of Webb.
A single mother of six and the daughter of a military father, she said that she was embarrassed for Virginians and that Webb treated the president with disrespect.
"It was such a Dixie Chick thing to do," she said, referring to the band whose lead singer was ridiculed for insulting Bush in 2003. "Nothing personal against the Dixie Chicks. But you can have all the opinion you want that he's wrong. But he's still the president."
Meintel, whose son is in the military serving in Kosovo, said Webb's reaction to Bush's question seemed designed to make a point.
"I think that 'How's your son doing?' is the most bipartisan thing the president could ask him," Meintel said Friday. "What else is he supposed to say?"
washingtonpost.com
Jim Webb --- kicking ass and taking down names |
