Give Me a Break

Remark By Webb Arouses Passions:

Okay, a little background if you haven't heard the story. At a White House reception for the newly elected members of Congress last week, Preznit George Dubbya Bush walked up to Senator-elect Jim Webb and asked "So, Jim, how's your boy?"

Now, if I, like Webb, had a son serving in Iraq, a number of retorts would have come to my mind, such as:

"In the goddamn quagmire you stuck him in, you arrogant ass."

Or:

"Unlike your worthless drunken hell-spawn, volunteering to serve his country".

You get the idea.

But Webb was politer than I would have been. "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," he answered.

Bush decided he was going to push a little harder:"That's not what I asked you," he said. "How's your boy?"

"That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb responded.

From the reaction of the Washington chattering class, you'd have though Webb had spat in the face of the Dimwit-in-Chief.

George Will was the first to get all prissy: "Webb certainly has conveyed what he is: a boor. Never mind the patent disrespect for the presidency. Webb's more gross offense was calculated rudeness toward another human being -- one who, disregarding many hard things Webb had said about him during the campaign, asked a civil and caring question, as one parent to another."

Well, boo-fucking-hoo. God forbid that anyone should engage in "calculated rudeness" to a man who'd said, in so many words, that if you vote for people like James Webb, terrorists win.

Then Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell chimed in: '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.'"

As the kids on the Internets say, O RLY? Is this the same collegiality Vice President Dick Cheney showed when he told Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy to fuck himself?

I've got news for you, Mr. Will and Mr. McDonnell: civility flows both ways. After six years of being called traitors and terrorist sympathizers, I hope you'll understand if some of us don't get the fucking vapors because a newly elected Senator who was accused by Republicans of writing child pornography doesn't bow down and kiss Bush's ring.

Frankly, it's about the time someone gave the Boy in the Bubble a little reality check. The problem with this so-called "civility" is that sociopaths like the current crew in the White House manipulate it so you'll give them a pass on their rotten behavior. They count on you not making a fuss.

Well, news flash. Fusses are about to be made.