A HORRIBLE, BORING COMPANION AT DINNER.That's right. Don't go out to dinner with Jim Webb if you want to have a good time. This is all according to R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. of the American Spectator, a CLASSIC example of neo-conservative writing at its best. And by best, I mean laughable crazy barrel of NUTS.
Some highlights:
When Ronald Reagan's former secretary of the navy, James Webb, eked out victory against the Republican Senator George Allen in Virginia, what did the Democrats gain? To be sure they gained control of the Senate. That has been widely noted. Less widely noted is the fact that they gained something infinitely more subtle, but delightfully more amusing as will become apparent in the months ahead. In Webb they gained yet another very unpleasant person as a conspicuous member of the party hierarchy. He will not be easily obscured. Webb now takes his place with Hillary Rodham Clinton, Dr. Howard Dean, Al Gore, Jean-Francois Kerry, and so many other Democratic notables as a rebarbative blowhard with whom you would not want to share a gondola. Nor would a civilized American want to have any of these churlish cads to dinner or even as neighbors down the block. Just the other day one of Senator Clinton's neighbors turned up with a gunshot wound. I would not be surprised if it were self-inflicted.Oh, ok. So everyone wants to use big words now that George Will has decided Jim Webb doesn't speak plainly enough. Got it. That makes perfect sense.
You know, by the way; I had no idea that Howard Dean WASN'T a former governor and that he was JUST a doctor. Huh. Oh, and did you know that John Kerry's middle name was Francois? I didn't. I must have missed that in 2004 when I was glued to the television for every single second of the election coverage. And WOW-Hillary's neighbors are trying to kill themselves? Sheesh. Tough neighborhood.
But wait...there's more.
AS IT HAPPENS I DID dine with Webb, sometime after his brief stint at the Department of the Navy. He is a pretty good novelist and in print at the time had expressed some ideas of which I approved, particularly his scruples against women in combat, though other of his references to women strike me as coarse. At any rate, I invited him to dinner for what turned out to be a gruesome evening. Webb is one of those people of whom it is said he is uncomfortable in his skin. At first I thought his discomfort might come from the fear he was going to have to pay his way. It was a classy eatery. I reassured him that he was my guest. I went on to make clear I considered him a fine writer. Nothing I said reassured him, not even my insistence that he have dessert. I left baffled. Most of the military men I have known are gents. Many writers are cads, but I thought a writer who had also served high up in the Reagan Administration might be civilized. After that dinner I never made the mistake of inviting him anywhere again.So Jim Webb sucks to go to dinner with, and the decision to wear his son's combat boots out of respect for our members of the military and as a reminder of this atrocious war was ACTUALLY an exploitation. It's all clear now.His campaign was a prolonged demonstration of his caddishness. He who had called President Bill Clinton's administration the most corrupt in modern history invited Clinton to campaign with him. He actually exploited his own son's present service in Iraq for political advancement. While campaigning he paraded around in his son's combat boots! There were others in the 2006 election with sons in Iraq. One is a leading opponent of the war. None put a son in such an embarrassing and potentially dangerous position. Once elected, Webb took his boorishness to the White House.
God, why the hell did I vote for this guy? Maybe it was because he is one of those "angry leftists" I love so much, right? Well, the brilliant Emmet Tyrrell thinks so.
Believe me Senator Webb 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.Well, I must say, my eyes are opened. You know, it's a good thing all of these writers are telling me what a bad guy Jim Webb is. I am DEFINITELY going to take their word for it. They must REALLY know what they are talking about, right?I have said it before and I shall be saying it again, often politics is not a rational act. Increasingly, especially in the Democratic Party, it encourages behavior that is abnormal: politicians windsurfing to assure their constituencies that they are just like them or ranting to show how genuinely human they are. These pols play on the fantasies of mildly delusional voters. In the case of the unpleasant Webb, the delusions are a bit over the top. It makes me wonder why his stay at the Department of the Navy was so brief. Did the Reaganites shove him out? Did one of them make the mistake of taking him to dinner? Or did they catch him acting up at a White House reception that has gone unreported? Some reporters should have looked into this.
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Oh, sour grapes. It's so nice to be in the majority.
The Capital Times of Madison WI has reported on this story for years: http://www.madison.c...
See also http://corrente.blog... [from a Penthouse article]
Garbage in, garbage out, as they say
The American Spectator is not only pathetic, but evil.
At first I thought his discomfort might come from the fear he was going to have to pay his way. It was a classy eatery. I reassured him that he was my guest. I went on to make clear I considered him a fine writer. Nothing I said reassured him, not even my insistence that he have dessert.
Well you just know that a guy with a name like "R. Emmett" is going to have a lot in common with Webb. Gee, Emmett, maybe he would have been more at ease if you'd showed him what to do with the salad and dessert forks. Poor, poor pitiful Webb: doughty boxer; fearless warrior who rushed headlong into danger to save his companions; SecNav who battled Frank Carlucci and resigned rather than submit; eloquent chronicler of the ravages of war; this man Webb was laid low by his visit to a "classy eatery", which sparked in him a paralyzing fear that he might have to pay the bill in spite of R. Emmett Tyrrell's (sounds like Thurston Howell the Third, doesn't it) brave attempts to "reassure" the poor, quivering fellow that the meal was on him. Oh, the horror!
I'm sure Thurston, er, I mean Emmett, never once considered the possibility that: a) Webb picked up on his priggishness and just didn't like him; and b) might not have been as enchanted with Emmett's conversation as Emmett was. I'm trying to think what kind of conversation a guy like Emmett might have initiated. Let's listen in, shall we?
So then I said to Muffy, "no one does the Riviera any more." And Muffy was quite horrified, you know. So then we just ended up doing Capri, and you know, the Italians are so charming with their little peasant ways, aren't they? But I digress. Anyway, I ordered the calamari. That's squid, but calamari sounds so much better, doesn't it? You're probably not familiar with exotic cuisines, but anyway ... They have SUCH a way with it, not over cooked, you know, but with just a HINT of garlic and the BEST olive oil ... I say, Jim, are you okay? I said I'd pick this up, you understand. No need to worry about that, my friend. Where was I? Anyway, so Muffy said she doesn't LIKE calamari. Jim? My goodness, are you always so quiet? Feel free to jump in anytime.
Of course, the most hilarious part of this is Emmett's assumption that a former Secretary of the Navy had no idea how to handle being at a "classy eatery". Did he honestly believe that Webb had never eaten at someplace "classy", for instance the White House? Dang rednecks. Cain't take 'em anywhere.
What I find a little bit strange in all of this is the hostility to Vietnam Vets coming from the right. It's like guys like Tyyrell and Will are discovering their inner hippie 30-40 years too late. It's kind of sad actually.
I can't even begin to imagine suffering through a dinner with Will. A delightful menu of braised stuffed shirts, roasted perverts, lukewarm rationale, regurgitated punditry, AND sour grapes? Enough to give anyone a serious case of the "run aways".