Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following article:
Bush gets snippy with Sen.-elect Jim Webb.
The letters thread is now closed.
  • Go, Marine, Go!

    The Usurper is not the only one who's going to find himself on the receiving end of metaphorical punches to the head from freshman dems. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are about to discover that while Webb, John Tester of Montana, John Yarmouth of Kentucky and others won in the general election because people are disgusted with republicans, they won their primaries because grass-roots democrats are disgusted with the cowardice, appeasement and bush-enabling of democratic "leaders."

    My guess - and my hope - is that the joint freshman caucus has already prepared its own First 100 Hours agenda that is going to knock Nancy and Harry right out of the ring.

  • Gee Dubber Bush "I was a Pilot in the Naional Guard and I just completed another 'Tour of Duty' in Saigon".

    I thought that our "MARINES" wore a Webb Belt; however, TRUTH can have you arrested as a TERRORIST.

    A good ting that Jim took his belt off and wakled away.

  • Be dissin' da Prez

    Bout damn time somebody started showing the Resident the withering disrespect and contempt he has earned. Webb has it 100% right: the institution deserves respect. The man deserves nothing but scorn and loathing.

  • webb had the last word

    This account of the conversation is not completely accurate. See the front page of today's Washington Post for Webb's rejoinder, "That's between me and my boy, Mr. President."

    Webb ROCKS.

  • from the Washington Post

    At a recent White House reception for freshman members of Congress, Virginia's newest senator tried to avoid President Bush. Democrat James Webb declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken with the man he had often criticized on the stump this fall. But it wasn't long before Bush found him.

    "How's your boy?" Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.

    "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

    "That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?"

    "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.

  • If Webb had popped him...

    ...he'd be President in two years.

  • According to someone who overheard the conversation . . .

    this is the updated version:

    "How's your boy?" Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.

    "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

    "That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?"

    "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.

    Perhaps an even better response would have been:

    "Sorry, Mr. President, I don't disucss my son with draft-dodging cowards.",

  • Contrary to much common impression, Dubya is NOT a "nice guy"

    I've always wondered why people supposedly say, "Oh, I'd like to have a beer with George W. Bush -- he's such a nice, regular guy!" No matter what other concrete criticisms you see reported about Dubya, THAT has been a constant refrain for years.

    Well, here's one person who would just as soon never lay eyes on the man, much less sit down and enjoy a cool one with him. He is NOT a "nice" person -- seems like he got an extra large dose of his mother Barbara's personality. She's another decidedly nasty person who, unaccountably, is embraced by large numbers of Americans.

    Just reflect once more on this classic passage from Tucker Carlson's 1999 interview with Dubya, the then-governor of Texas, in which the execution of Karla Faye Tucker was discussed:

    - - - - - - -

    In the weeks before the execution, Bush says, a number of protesters came to Austin to demand clemency for Karla Faye Tucker. "Did you meet with any of them?" I ask. Bush whips around and stares at me. "No, I didn't meet with any of them," he snaps, as though I've just asked the dumbest, most offensive question ever posed. "I didn't meet with Larry King either when he came down for it. I watched his interview with Tucker, though. He asked her real difficult questions like, 'What would you say to Governor Bush?'" "What was her answer?" I wonder. "'Please,'" Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, "'don't kill me.'" I must look shocked — ridiculing the pleas of a condemned prisoner who has since been executed seems odd and cruel — because he immediately stops smirking.

    - - - - - - -

    "Nice" or "Christian" are two words that don't pop into my mind after re-reading THAT, while "vile" and "self-centered" do. Once again, the real Dubya bubbled to the surface in the reported exchange with Senator-elect Webb.

  • So...

    Webb is like every other dem. Using service members to further their defeatist agenda.

    Bush shows concern and Webb tries to turn it into a debate on the war.

    Anytime Bush, or any Republican gets a mornic response from a dem like that the stack answer should be, You control the Congress now, so tell me how you'd like me to get your son home.

    And the response will be... You got us into the war and you have to get us out. Us dems don't have any responsibility for that.

  • How's your boy?

    It's rare that any of us can come up with just the right quip in a momentary give and take with someone we dislike, especially when the guy you dislike is the president.

    But if I could have that brief encounter to do over again, I wish Webb had just stared coldly into Bush's eyes and deadpanned: "What do you care?"

  • Webb rocks!

    I don't live in Virginia, but I was rooting for Webb the whole time he was running against the Macaca man, and was thrilled when he won. I don't agree with every view Webb has, as he much more conservative than I am. But I've always believed that he is a good man, and this story proves that I was right all along!

  • RichEmery has asked a question I've also had for a while

    For years I have heard two stock lines about the personality of George W. Bush- that he's "the kind of guy you'd like to have a beer with" and that "he's a Christian." Lines that are so of like "Look at the emperor's new clothes!"

    In my imbibing days I occasionally found myself in a bar with people like George W. Bush - people who were nasty, snippy, argumentative or belligerent, convinced of their own superiority. In other words, not the

    As for being a Christian, the only proof of this seesm to be that George says he is. Which means I could equally say "I'm a descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte! Why? Because I say I am!"

    Now: when are the members of the press corps going to start noticing what everybody else has noticed?