Senator Jim Webb starts off his tenure in the Senate on the wrong foot
And in the process has no doubt endeared himself to the MSM. Why? Read on:
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.
[…]
“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.”
In the days after the election, Webb’s Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill went out of their way to make nice with Bush and be seen by his side. House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sat down for a lunch and photo opportunity with Bush, as did Democratic leaders in the Senate.
Not Webb, who said he tried to avoid a confrontation with Bush at the White House reception but did not shy away from one when the president approached.
I’m with Dana Pico, on this one. He asks:
My question would be: if the honorable gentleman from Virginia didn’t want to be seen or photographed with, or polite to, the President of the United States, why did he attend a White House reception in the first place? He’s a free man; he could have stayed away.
Disgusting.
Indeed. So much for being able to ‘put differences aside in order to be able to work together’, eh?
Looks like we have another juvenile Bush hater in the Senate, folks. Just what we needed.
Hat tip: Brian at Iowa Voice, who notes that the Nutroots are lapping it up.
Read more via K-Lo, Michael van der Galien at The Moderate Voice
(Cross-posted at Right Wing News)