My neighbor sent me a note last night chiding me for finally taking down my Webb for Senate sign at the end of my driveway, on the eve of Webb pulling his coup within the Democratic Party to deliver its response to the President’s State of his Mind speech.
I lamely replied that oh contraire, I’m just trying to figure out how to recast it as a “Webb for President” poster.
Never mind the media spinmeisters focusing on how well (or not) the President did. And never mind the surreal Anderson Cooper having on two neocon Brigadier Generals who one-upped each other in proclaiming the President’s plan will work, “if only the American people stand behind it.” “Spider” Marks is “certifiable” in my book. He’s been wrong on Iraq for years – so who is pulling the strings at CNN to keep him as their featured military anal-yst?
Ah, but never mind the talking trolls.
In my book, Webb hit another home run tonight. I’d still like to know how the Democrats picked Webb over, say, Obama or Hillary, to give the Democrat’s response to the President. My guess: Nancy Pelosi. Shrewd move. In case you missed it, here’s the transcript.
Ok, so Webb may be the accidental, semi-uncomfortable junior “Democratic” Senator from Virginia. (and a former Reagan era Navy Secretary) I like his refreshing non-style. He beat incredibly long odds last November, when he de-throned Senator George “Macaca” Allen here in Virginia. Not just because Allen couldn’t get his foot out of his mouth, Webb won the ole’ fashioned way…. he held his ground. The neocon chickenhawks couldn’t touch him either – as he wore a pair of his son’s Marine combat boots, every day of his campaign.
Soon after being elected, I admired the way Webb refused to banter with President Bush and his unseemly inquiry into “his boy’s” condition in Iraq. I was so impressed that I kept my Webb sign up – in defiance of Virginia “tradition” to take down political signs the “day after.”
I’m still with the Dixie Chicks; I’m not ready to make nice.
Ok, maybe “J.W.” is a greenhorn to national politics – compared to such “veteran” national political figures like Hillary, Al, John, or Obama…. Imagine how Obama must feel being upstaged by “J.W.” Webb’s 9 minute speech tonight packed in more key zingers than I’ve heard from any of the other Presidential contenders yet, including from my best hope for the Republicans – Chuck Hagel. Maybe I haven’t been listening either.
In Webb’s world, America is in deep trouble, at home and aborad. On the economy, the glittering oil laden Dow Index belies a hidden problem:
When one looks at the health of our economy, it’s almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say that things have never been better. The stock market is at an all-time high, and so are corporate profits. But these benefits are not being fairly shared. When I graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what the average worker did; today, it’s nearly 400 times. In other words, it takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day.
Wages and salaries for our workers are at all-time lows as a percentage of national wealth, even though the productivity of American workers is the highest in the world. Medical costs have skyrocketed. College tuition rates are off the charts. Our manufacturing base is being dismantled and sent overseas….
In short, the middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future, is losing its place at the table…. In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base…. We must recapture that spirit today.
Amen. Webb may not be original here of course; such concern has made it into Fedspeak from current Chair Ben Bernanke and former Fed “Boss” Allan Greenspan. Today’s Christian Science Monitor even runs an oped on the subject Yet it was Webb who dropped jaws in November when he landed this oped in the lion’s den (a.k.a. The Wall Street Journal.)
Webb is even more on target in nailing the President’s foreign policy legacy. Webb is not lobbing rhetorical bombs from “left field.” No, he’s coming at it from a “conservative” heartland tradition of those who volunteered to serve in American armed forces, from his Dad in Berlin, to himself in Vietnam, to his son now in Iraq.
Like so many other Americans, today and throughout our history, we serve and have served, not for political reasons, but because we love our country. On the political issues those matters of war and peace, and in some cases of life and death we trusted the judgment of our national leaders. We hoped that they would be right, that they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm’s way.
We owed them our loyalty, as Americans, and we gave it. But they owed us sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it.
With Bush, that trust was betrayed.
The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable and predicted disarray that has followed.
The war’s costs to our nation have been staggering. Financially. The damage to our reputation around the world. The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism. And especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve.
The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military.
(unlike the majority of the retired military trolls on the corporate media dole.) Straight shooting indeed.
Webb implicitly locates the solution, a “new direction,” in the CORE recommendation of the Baker-Hamilton Commission report.
We need a new direction. Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq’s cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.
What a concept – diplomacy with neighbors, including Iran and Syria, as part of the answer! Ah, but Bush tonight was all but branding Iran as among our “enemies” next to be destroyed.
Webb then wows me with his closing invocation of no less than Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower. Not bad for a Democratic newcomer….!
Regarding the economic imbalance in our country, I am reminded of the situation President Theodore Roosevelt faced in the early days of the 20th century. America was then, as now, drifting apart along class lines. The so-called robber barons were unapologetically raking in a huge percentage of the national wealth. The dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening revolt.
Roosevelt spoke strongly against these divisions. He told his fellow Republicans that they must set themselves “as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other.” And he did something about it.
As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. “When comes the end?” asked the General who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War Two. And as soon as he became President, he brought the Korean War to an end.
These Presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world. Tonight we are calling on this President to take similar action, in both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.
Lead on.
Al-Qaeda Run PR For Bush Before Union Speech
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2007/230107prforbush.htm
My impression of Webb tonight was that in a deliberate and understated manner, he wove a very clear and urgent pattern of contrasts, compairing the blight and bluster of the bush years against a new framing of heartland democratic traditions backed up by an un-flinching, un-waffeling, un-flipfloping, un-volvodriving, un-elitist resolve — as suprising and un-expected revalation of what we’ve come to never expect, but always hope for from the democrats. Words with meaning, sentences that connect, and paragraphs that add up, its like a fucking miracle. In a 9 minute speech he not only blew the doors off bush, but all the frontrunners as well.
Today I delivered the following testimony on Iraq to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. My plan calls for (1) the redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq, (2) the execution of a robust diplomatic effort and the restoration of our international credibility, and (3) the repairing of our military readiness and the rebuilding of our strategic reserve to face future threats.
TESTIMONY OF CONGRESSMAN JOHN P. MURTHA
Before the SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE
110th Congress
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-john-murtha/my-testimony-on-iraq-to-t_b_39387.html
القوات العراقية تتسلم الامن غرب الرمادي
المشهداني: الجنود الاميركيون يتحرشون بالنائبات العراقيات
مسلحون يختطفون 26 فلسطينيا في بغداد
الظواهري يتحدى بوش في العراق ويتوعد الإثيوبيين في الصومال
عدد المعتقلين من جيش المهدي يفوق 600 عنصر
طبيب نمساوي أمام الأنفال حول الكيمياوي
أسامة مهدي من لندن: إتهم رئيس مجلس النواب العراقي محمود المشهداني الجنود الاميركيين بالتحرش بالنائبات العراقيات عن تفتيشهن لدخول المنطقة الخضراء لحضور اجتماعات المجلس واسماعهن كلمات جنسية وهاجم وزير الدفاع عبد القادر العبيدي وقال انه يرفض دعوة المجلس لاستجوابه. وفي جلسة لمجلس النواب اليوم هاجم المشهداني وزير الدفاع وقال انه يرفض الحضور تلبية لطلب اعضاء لاستجوابه حول الانهيار الامني الذي تشهده البلاد وخاصة بعد تصاعد عمليات التفجير التي شهدتها العاصمة خلال الايام العشرة الاخيرة والتي راح ضحيتها اكثر من 500 عراقي بين قتيل وجريح.
واضاف ان وزير الدفاع بذل كل جهده من اجل اقناع مجلس النواب بالموافقة على تعيينه بمنصبه لكنه الان يتمرد على طلب الاستدعاء . وبلهجة غاضبة صرخ المشهداني قائلا (والله راح اجيبة هو ورئيس وزراءه) في اشارة الى رئيس الوزراء نوري المالكي . لكن وزير شؤون البرلمان رد على ذلك بالقول ان الوزير مستعد للمثول امام مجلس النواب لكن طلبا رسميا بذلك لم يقدم اليه موضحا ان القانون يرغمه على الاستجابة للطلب بعد سبعة ايام من استلامه.
وتعليقا على شكوى نائبة من تصرفات مسيئة يقوم بها الجنود الاميركان ضد النائبات لدى تفتيشهن قال المشهداني انه احتج لدى سفير (الدولة العلية) في اشارة الى السفير الاميركي في بغداد زلماي خليلزاد لكن شيئا لم يحدث . واضاف ان الجنود الاميركيين بدأوا يتعلمون اللغة العربية ويسمعون النائبات عند تفتيشهن لدى دخولهن الى المنطقة الخضراء بوسط بغداد وفيها مقر مجلس النواب كلمات نابية . واشار الى ان الجنود الاميركيين يفتشون بشكل غير لائق النائبات ويسمعوهن كلمات مثل: اريد اتزوج .. واحبك . وقال ان هؤلاء الجنود (تافهين ابناء تافهين) واقر بان العراق لاسيادة له وانه لايستطيع فعل أي شيء لوقف هذه التجاوزات . ومعروف ان في مجلس النواب 75 نائبة من مجموع عدد اعضائه البالغ 275 عضوا .
http://www.elaph.com/ElaphWeb/Politics/2007/1/206126.htm
i was so pleased with jim webb’s address that i almost felt proud to be an american again..a run for president in his future?..if only….
(for “Salah”)
If M. al-Mashhadání, despite being Speaker of the House, has to put up with a “High State” that acts without consultation, and if he has no control over US troops, at least do us Democrats the justice of recognizing that Nancy Pelosi is in much the same position.
Happy days.
Rambo in Baghdad!!
Another American official in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said three Blackwater helicopters were involved. One had landed for an unknown reason and one of the Blackwater employees was shot at that point, he said. That helicopter apparently was able to take off but a second one then crashed in the same area, he added without explaining the involvement of the third helicopter.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070124/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_070124140044
raq: US Plan Must Rein in Death Squads
“Human Rights Watch said the most important benchmark the Iraqi government needs to meet is to establish control over its Ministry of Interior and end its ties to armed militias, including the Mahdi Army and Badr Forces. ”
“It’s not clear whether the ministry controls the militias or the militias control the ministry, but either way, they’re responsible for some of the worst abuses in Iraq today,” Whitson said.”
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/01/08/iraq14986.htm
It’s not surprising that Obama or Hillary were not picked to give the Democratic response. There will be a contested primary in 2008 and the party has not endorsed a candidate. Selecting a declared candidate to give the speech would have inevitably given an imprimatur of approval on that candidate.
As for Webb’s speech, I liked it. Solid and to the point. It’s too early to tell where he’s headed. But I like him.
Short of impeachment, the war will go on until after January 2009. Six months from now, the situation will be more violent and dire, whatever of Iran. Eretz Israel is guaranteed to use the cover to launch more assaults and war, in connivance with the U.S. As I read in a comment over at Jaun Cole, 20 years from now, publicly funded GOP and other “Institutes” and think tanks will be carrying the “Who Lost Iraq” banners high whilst currying favour with the same old gang of the fearful, the fundamentalist, the bigoted, the hateful and the just plain nutty.
Of course, none of those will be necessary if the blowback supports martial law and the FEMA-ization of U.S.civil society. I’d say the Dems have less than six months to regain control, find some glasses, and read and execute the Constitution before it is permanently moved for safekeeping and “security”. At that time, debate about the provisions of the old relic will be aiding and abetting the enemy.
For heaven’s sake, you have 43 legislating via signing statements without a peep from Congress. Smooth move to stick it to earmarks now that the GOP is out, though. Why isn’t a law passed now forbidding Shrub from signing statements?
“The downing of the Blackhawk on Jan. 20 is significant when one takes into account the people who were on board. Several high-ranking U.S. officers, including the commander of U.S. medical personnel in Iraq, died in the crash.”
“Confronting Iraq”
All Bush is saying
is give war a chance
it’s funny. webb sounded good when compared to all the hollow rhetoric coming from most of the talking heads, democratic candidates included.
the feeling one got watching him was not that dissimilar to that which came over me watching Howard Dean rip the Bushies a new one. webb is fresh. there’s no need to get overwhelmed or irrational and start drafting him for president.
for godsake, what the hell is wrong with the american people? cant they just be critical? why must they get passionately behind (and blinded by) ANY political leader?
it’s funny. webb sounded good when compared to all the hollow rhetoric coming from most of the talking heads, democratic candidates included.
the feeling one got watching him was not that dissimilar to that which came over me watching Howard Dean rip the Bushies a new one. webb is fresh. there’s no need to get overwhelmed or irrational and start drafting him for president.
for godsake, what the hell is wrong with the american people? cant they just be critical? why must they get passionately behind (and blinded by) ANY political leader?
Iraq: the resistance of the Congress will not stop Bush in her plan, according to Cheney
Wednesday January 24, 2007, 22h46 the American vice-president Dick Cheney said Wednesday on CNN that the resistance of the Congress would not prevent president George W. Bush from applying her new plan for Iraq.
If tthat the case why ten GWB abd Cheney aksed Congress?
Hey Helena,
If Webb is so great, why didn’t he criticize Bush on the war plans against Iran?
And were you too busy genuflecting before Webb to call him on this bullshit?
Come on!
You shouldn’t gush just because someone criticizes bush in a stern manner. The war with Iran will go on. More bloodshed will happen. More people with brown skin will die unnecessarily. Our descendents will be left to deal with the blowback.
Joe, you should try learning to read bylines… This one was “by” Scott.
Having said that, I did really like the Webb speech, and I’ve liked a lot about what I’ve seen him do since elected last November. He seems to be a focused, principled straight shooter. That’s worth a lot– especially in a frequently toxic environment like Washington DC– even if you or I might disagree with him on a number of specifics.
Sorry to have confused you Joe. ;-} Yet on the substance of your concern, I too might have wished Webb had said something re. the ongoing mad rush to provoke a war (change the subject?) with Iran. Yet I did reference Webb “implicitly” speaking to this subject – the core recommendation of Baker-Hamilton – in his crucial reference to advocating “regional diplomacy” as the key to finding a solution. Of course, when one looks at the map, “regional” begins and ends with Iran – history hasn’t called it the “Persian Gulf” for nothing….
Scott and Helena,
What about Dennis Kucinich for President? I would think that he would be your candidate?! He is mine!