WASHINGTON -- 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.
All of the above are demonstrably unpleasant individuals, known
for their public temper tantrums, their rudeness to staff, their
slipperiness with the truth, and their occasional bizarre
outbursts. The Republicans have a few such stinkers, for instance
Newt Gingrich, but not nearly as many. It almost seems that to be a
Democratic notable one has to be ill tempered and, as I say,
unpleasant.
Think back to Dr. Dean's historic scream and frequent public
demonstrations of bile. Think of Hillary's and Al's mendacious
moments and lapses into self-absorption when public matters were at
issue, for instance 9/11. Think of how often all of them have
played the role of the bad sport after a failed election or, in
Hillary's case, a visit to a grand jury.
Recall, if you will, Senator Kerry's recent catastrophic joke on
the campaign trail. To many Americans he seemed to be saying that
our solders serving in Iraq are dolts. Call me naive, but
personally I accepted his explanation that he merely botched a joke
meant to imply that President George W. Bush is a dolt -- Bush,
who, incidentally, graduated from Yale with a higher grade point
than this intellectual mediocrity. Nonetheless, it was in Kerry's
defense of his botched joke that he revealed his unpleasant
essence. He snarled that "I apologize to no one." In his hastily
called press conference he went on to pout, "I'm not going to stand
for it." And he went on in his bullying diatribe to thunder, "I'm
sick and tired of a bunch of despicable Republicans....Enough is
enough. We're not going to stand for it." For what? For perceived
mistreatment from "these Republican hacks who've never worn the
uniform of our country..." blah, blah, blah.
As I say Kerry is an unpleasant fellow in a party increasingly
led by unpleasant fellows and fellowesses. Consider incoming
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who blustered to Time
magazine not long ago, "Anybody's who's ever dealt with me, knows
not to mess with me." Again, is this someone you would care to dine
with or even pass in a hallway?
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.
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.
Invited there with other freshmen members of Congress, Webb
refused to stand in the presidential receiving line. He would not
have his picture taken with the President. "How's your boy?" the
Washington Post reports the President asking him later
during the reception. Webb replied that he would like to get the
troops home, a point appropriate for the campaign trail but not at
a White House social event. "That's not what I asked," the
President persisted, "How's your boy?" "That's between me and my
boy, Mr. President," the unpleasant Webb replied, and he cut his
host. This the Post portrayed as part of Webb's
"unpolished style." "I'm not particularly interested in having a
picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall," he told a reporter.
Well, then a gentleman does not accept the President's invitation
to the White House and no one told him he would have to display the
picture anywhere.
According to the Hill, Webb even told a source for the
paper that "he was so angered by this [encounter] that he was
tempted to slug the commander-in-chief." Webb claims that one of
his heroes is President Andrew Jackson. I too admire Old Hickory,
but I at least recognize the rough ways of the early 19th century
are not to be reprised in the 21st century. What next, will the
junior senator from Virginia being challenging those who arouse him
to a duel? What century does Webb think he is living in? 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.
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.
topics:
Nancy Pelosi, Bill Clinton, Military, Iraq, NATO
