By George F. Will
Thursday, November 30, 2006; Page A23
"That was certainly swift. Washington has a way of quickly acculturating people, especially those who are most susceptible to derangement by the derivative dignity of office. But Jim Webb, Democratic senator-elect from Virginia, has become a pompous poseur and an abuser of the English language before actually becoming a senator."
You mean like "misunderestimated," and "mission accomplished?" For folks board to death with Bush and the English language, I invite readers to go to the NY Times and read the opinion peice by a religous guy-Richard Shweder "Atheists Agonistes." Read the article about religious folk and "ignorance" and "human progress" and how he's angry that religious folk are considered stupid, then look up the word Agonistes in the American Heritage dictionary in Bartleby.com.
When did Cowboy Bush ever hold the "dignity of the office," in high esteem?
"Wednesday's Post reported that at a White House reception for newly elected members of Congress, Webb "tried to avoid President Bush," refusing to pass through the reception line or have his picture taken with the president. When Bush asked Webb, whose son is a Marine in Iraq, "How's your boy?" Webb replied, "I'd like to get them [sic] out of Iraq." When the president again asked "How's your boy?" Webb replied, "That's between me and my boy." Webb told The Post:
"'I'm not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall. 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."'
"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 --"
You mean like when Bush forgets he's being record and goes off the record on world leaders? Again Bush doesn't need any help from Webb to disrespect the presidency, he's done a lot of disrespecting the presidency on his own-thank you very much.
"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. When -- if ever -- Webb grows weary of admiring his new grandeur as a "leader" who carefully calibrates the "symbolic things" he does to convey messages, he might consider this: In a republic, people decline to be led by leaders who are insufferably full of themselves."
Even before his studied truculence in response to the president's hospitality, Webb was going out of his way to make waves. A week after the election, he published a column in the Wall Street Journal that began this way:
"'The most important -- and unfortunately the least debated -- issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country.'"
"Well."
Well yourself George who typifies himself as this upper crust conservative who hasn't got time for the bloodsport of politics. Second of all these issues need to be address and Webb looks like the realdeal. Third, he's going into the Senate for Christ's sake. The Senate where it is the more intellectual chamber of Congress. The Senate where people have been penning books and essaies since JFK's Profiles In Courage.
"In his novels and his political commentary, Webb has been a writer of genuine distinction, using language with care and precision. But just days after winning an election, he was turning out slapdash prose that would be rejected by a reasonably demanding high school teacher.
"Never mind Webb's careless and absurd assertion that the nation's incessantly discussed wealth gap is "the least debated" issue in American politics."
That's because it is. As Eisenhower so eloquently put it, we have a military industrial-complex in Washington, there's money for the war on terror, there's money for the war in Afghanistan, there's money for the war in Iraq, there's money to keep camp x-ray going to house terrorists and release them whenever we feel like it, there's money for the balkans, there's money for troops by Korea and Tiawan. There's money for all this except for poverty, our national park system, social services. I'm not saying we shouldn't fund the military but we need to fund better things than the secret stealth stealth stealth bomber.
"And never mind his use of the word "literally," although even with private schools and a large share of the nation's wealth, the "top tier" -- whatever cohort he intends to denote by that phrase; he is suddenly too inflamed by social injustice to tarry over the task of defining his terms -- does not "literally" live in another country."
What was enemy combatents again?
And never mind the cavalier historical judgments -- although is he sure that America is less egalitarian today than it was, say, 50 years ago, when only about 7 percent of American adults had college degrees? (Twenty-eight percent do today.) Or 80 years ago, when more than 80 percent of American adults did not have high school diplomas (85 percent have them today), and only about 46 percent owned their own homes, compared with 69 percent today?
But notice, in the second sentence of Webb's column, the word "infinitely." Earth to Webb: Words have meanings that not even senators can alter. And he has been elected to be a senator, not Humpty Dumpty in "Through the Looking Glass." ("When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.") America's national economic statistics are excellent; Webb could actually tell us how much richer the "top tier" has become, relative to other cohorts, over a particular span. But that would require him to actually say whom he is talking about, and that takes time and effort, and senators -- Webb is a natural -- often are too busy for accuracy.
Based on Webb's behavior before being sworn in, one shudders to think what he will be like after that. He already has become what Washington did not need another of, a subtraction from the city's civility and clear speaking.