Our Senator-Elect tells it like it is:In an interview with the Daily Press this afternoon, Sen.-elect Jim Webb, D-Va., said George W. Bush is "a failed president."I look forward to the entire interview. For now, thank goodness we replaced "stay the course" rhetoric with reality. (H/T Vivian)Webb also said he was leery of current proposals to send additional combat troops to Iraq to attempt to quell the violence in Baghdad.
(UPDATE: Full interview article here - thanks JPTERP. More quotes after the flip.)
"He's a failed president.... He has two years to try to show some true leadership when it comes to rehabilitating the image of the United States around the world....I warned three months before we went into Iraq that we were squandering an historic opportunity to keep almost the entire world with us in the war against international terrorism. And we have failed utterly to do that. It is now up to us - and that hopefully includes the president - to try and remediate the situation in a way that will enhance the stability in the Middle East and rehabilitate our relationship with countries around the world."
Well said, and I don't sense that the Senator-Elect sounded optimistic about Bush turning his presidency around in the next 24 months.
On his dust-up with the President:
"I have declined to answer personal questions about my son in a political context," Webb said in explaining his response to Bush. "All I was doing was trying to curtail a conversation. I said nothing publicly about it at all until the story was leaked, I think by the White House. I'm happy to go over and have breakfast with President Bush, if he wants to have breakfast."Wow, sounds like he's blaming the White House for leaking the story to make him look bad. Remind you of the style of a certain White House official?
And, finally, on the president's "double or nothing" surge of troops in Iraq:
Asked about proposals for a short-term surge in troop levels, Webb said, "I'm willing to hear them out. I don't see a clear reason for it. I want to see what they're talking about."Of course you don't see a clear reason for it, good Senator. It doesn't exist. I have a feeling that Webb's will be even more pessimistic about this strategy once he's learned more about it.
"I came to play..."
Indeed, you did, Senator-elect Webb.
Yes, indeed.
Thanks!
Steve
Plus, some reflections from Robert Timberg. Author of the Nightingale's Song (a book from the early 90s that profiled Webb and McCain, among others).
Does Webb have the temperament for success on Capitol Hill?
I don’t think Jim is going to go around kicking people in the shins. Before he became Secretary of the Navy he was Asst. Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. That’s the kind of position where you’ve got to compromise. But one thing—and McCain shares this as well—you can’t push Jim around. You can’t scare him. And when he decides something that he thinks is right, he’s not going to budge an inch. It’s a mistake to think he’s going to blend in or that he wants to blend in. Jim, more than anybody that I know, still feels the anger and pain and betrayal of Vietnam.
Looking forward to seeing the whole Daily Press interview with Webb.
How ironic it is that the people asking the questions posed by this Bush apologist were the ones called un-American BEFORE THE WAR. This irony is probably way above the ability of Mr. Derby to tragically understand. Derby probably loathes our next freat Senator-Statesman, Jim Webb!
Consider the falloutThe Daily Press has printed letter after letter calling for America to pull troops out of Iraq. The writers have worked long and hard to find creative and new ways to describe the war. They hate President Bush, and they want us out of Iraq. But there is one thing all the letters have in common. They do not explain what will happen in Iraq if we pull out before the new nation can defend itself.
The Bush-haters have two more years to bash him, and I fully expect to read more hate mail in the paper. But I wish just one "cut-and-run" advocate would explain what happens in Iraq and the region if the new government of Iraq falls. What happens to the Iraqi people who supported our effort? What happens if terrorists gain control of Iraq? Will Iran become the dominant power in the region? Will other nations like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait fall or be dominated by Iran? Will Iran control the flow of oil from the region? How high will gas prices go?
Is there one person out there who can get past their hate for Bush and look ahead instead of back? Will Hezbollah be emboldened to take over Lebanon? Will moderate Arab governments like Jordan feel safe? How secure will Israel be if it is surrounded by nations dominated by radical Islamists? If Israel decides it can not count on America, will it take matters into its own hands? Are the letter writers blinded by their hate?
Keith Derby
Yorktown
The underlying idea here seems to be "oh they just don't like the guy on a personal level, so they say mean things about him".
Unfortunately, that's not accurate.
Bush hating has every thing to do with hating Bush's incompetent management and inept policy making.
It doesn't start out personal, but when you're talking about the impact of this adminstration's policies on family, friends, and neighbors, it certainly gets that way.
You could look at the national debt and how it's grown over the past 6 years.
You could look at the amount of money that we've borrowed from China in recent years ($1 trillion at last count).
You could look at the "ground reality" in Iraq and the claims that this administraton has made in both the lead up to and during the course of the Iraq War (claims which in hindsight can be seen as overblown, deliberately misleading, or outright false).
You could look at the one diplomatic achievement that this administration has--normalizing relations with Libya and encouraging Libya to abandon its nuclear weapons program (a move that was put into motion 7 years before Bush came to office).
The cumulation of facts supports a personal view, but the view isn't entirely arbitrary, or entirely personal.
If you look at the baseline realities that have accumulated over the past 6 years you can't seriously make a claim that this administration has served the American people's interests in the broadest possible sense. At least that claim can't be made with evidence. No evidence, equals a personal opinion that is supported mostly by prejudice and not by baseline realities.
I (we?) hate the destructive and deadly policies of W. Even though I have personal antipathy towards the mannerisms of the man, it is what his administration hath wrought that I hate.
It was rumored that this memo was leaked by Richard Clarke.
Yep, I think Rove is at it again.