Jim Webb in need of sedative
Sunday's Meet the Press with Jim Webb and Lindsey Grahan should have taken place in the ring at a WWE event.
Tim Russert played his role well. He was about as effective as one of those clueless referees.
He was a disaster.
I'm not a big fan of Graham, but Webb really creeps me out.
He's been interviewed by Tim Russert a number of times, but I've never seen Russert challenge him about the bizarre content of his extremely graphic novels nor the state of his mind.
Read some of Webb's literary work here. It's really weird stuff.
If his writings provide a glimpse of the real Webb, he is one frightening guy.
But I digress.
On Sunday's Meet the Press, Democrat pistol packin' Webb and Republican Graham squared off on Iraq.
Transcript
From the start, Webb had trouble maintaining control and speaking coherently.
Same old, same old. Even though it was typical Webb, I still found it disturbing to watch.
He seems like such a powder keg, ready to explode.
I don't know why the people of Virginia elected this guy to represent them in the Senate.
MR. RUSSERT: Gentlemen, welcome both. Let me begin by showing, one more time, the president’s comments on Thursday at his news conference. Let’s watch.
(Videotape, Thursday)
PRES. BUSH: I don’t think Congress ought to be running the war. I think they ought to be funding our troops.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Webb, are you trying to run the war?
SEN. WEBB: No, I don’t think that there is a war, to start off with. I think that this has been a botched occupation. It’s been going on for four years after the purely military part of it was done. This administration has failed in terms of bringing the right diplomatic formula to the table. We—all of the things that people like myself were predicting would happen if we went into Iraq are the—exactly the sorts of things that the president and the small group of people who have sort of rallied around him are saying will happen if we leave. We were saying that Iran would be empowered, we were saying that international terrorism would be empowered, we were saying that the reputation of the United States would be diminished around the world, and we were saying the region would become more unstable. So we’ve reached the point, and I see, with what Senator Warner and Senator Lugar have introduced, that there’s a good, strong feeling among the Republicans as well, we’ve reached the point where we have to come together as a Congress and attempt to bring some order into this.
MR. RUSSERT: Are you trying to wrest control of the war from the President, in effect, along with the Republicans?
SEN. WEBB: No. I, I think that any administrative discretion, any executive power, has its limits. And the Congress has the authority, not only to appropriate, but to put conditions on, for instance, how our troops are being used.... Four years into a war you have to be able to put some rational limits on how our troops are being used.
That was just the beginning of Webb's stupidity.
"I don’t think that there is a war, to start off with."
That's odd. If there's no war, what's Webb doing on Meet the Press talking about the war?
Webb says there's no war, but then he says that we're "four years into a war."
What a genius!
Things didn't really get heated between Webb and Graham until later in the segment.
Here's a sample:
SEN. GRAHAM: When General Petraeus comes back, he will tell us these things. I want to leave. No American wants to occupy Iraq. But history will judge us, my friend, not when we left, but what we left behind. Do we leave a resurgent al-Qaeda that will kill every moderate who helped us? Do we empower Iran? Do they control the south of Iraq? Nobody ever asks the consequences, polls the consequences of this idea, just wash your hands of Iraq.
SEN. WEBB: It’s been, it’s been a hard, it’s been a hard month Lindsey. You need to calm down my friend.
SEN. GRAHAM: I’m going to listen to this general, and I’m not going to let any politician take the place of the general.
MR. RUSSERT: I’ll give you a chance to respond.
SEN. WEBB: Lindsey’s had a hard month. You know, these people who have, you know, gathered around...
SEN. GRAHAM: I don’t know about Lindsey having a hard month.
SEN. WEBB: ...gathered around the president, you know, on the immigration bill, on this bill. I know it’s, I know it’s been tough.
Webb is so condescending and disrespectful.
SEN. GRAHAM: It’s about the next 20 and 30 years.
SEN. WEBB: We got to, we got to bring people together, and you know, get a diplomatic solution in place here that’s in consonance with this. When the president announced the surge in January, he said that, by the end of this year, all of the provinces in Iraq would be under the control of Iraqis. That’s clearly not going to happen. And the bottom line here is whether you want to stay for 10 years or whether you want to stay for six months...
SEN. GRAHAM: I want to, I want to beat extremism.
SEN. WEBB: Excuse me. Excuse me, friend. We need to find a formula that takes care of the well-being of our soldiers and our Marines. And there is no...
SEN. GRAHAM: That we can agree on.
SEN. WEBB: There is no operational policy...
SEN. GRAHAM: That we can agree on.
Graham tried to get Webb to conduct himself in a manner more befitting a U.S. senator but Webb would have no part of it.
He wanted to do battle with Graham, not be civil, not show Americans that representatives of the two parties are capable of working together to achieve what's best for the country.
SEN. WEBB: ...that justifies what we’ve been doing. But the tradition...
MR. RUSSERT: But do you...
SEN. WEBB: The traditional operational policy has been if you’ve been gone for a year, you get two years back. We’re now in a situation where the soldiers and the Marines are having less than a one to one ratio, and somebody needs to speak up for them rather than simply defending what this president’s been doing.
SEN. GRAHAM: When they re-enlist in the highest numbers anywhere else in the military, they’re speaking...
SEN. WEBB: You know, this is one thing I really—this is one thing I really take objection to...
SEN. GRAHAM: ...the soldiers are speaking, my friend. Let them win.
SEN. WEBB: ...is politicians who—at the...
SEN. GRAHAM: Let them win.
SEN. WEBB: Politicians who—may I speak?
SEN. GRAHAM: They want to win, let them win.
SEN. WEBB: Is politicians who try to put their political views into the mouths of soldiers. You can look at poll after poll, and the political views of the United States military are no different than the country at large. Go take a look at The New York Times today.
At this point, Webb looked like he wanted to pull out one of his guns and pistol-whip Graham.
SEN. GRAHAM: The soldiers...
SEN. WEBB: Less than half of the military believes that we should be in Iraq in the first place.
SEN. GRAHAM: Have you been to Iraq? Have you ever been and talked to them? I’ve been seven times.
SEN. WEBB: You know, have you ever been to these—I’ve been—I’ve covered two wars as a correspondent...
SEN. GRAHAM: Have you been to Iraq?
SEN. WEBB: I have been to Afghanistan as a journalist.
SEN. GRAHAM: Have you been to Iraq and—have you been to Iraq and talked to the soldiers?
SEN. WEBB: You know, you haven’t been to Iraq.
SEN. GRAHAM: I’ve been to—I’ve been there seven times.
SEN. WEBB: You know, you go see the dog and pony shows.
SEN. GRAHAM: I’ve been there as a reservist, I have been there and I’m going back in August.
SEN. WEBB: That’s what congressmen do. Yeah, I have, I have—I’ve been a member of the military when the senators come in.
Webb wouldn't answer a simple question. He kept dodging and weaving.
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, all—listen, something we can agree on, we both admire the men and women in uniform. I don’t doubt your patriotism.
SEN. WEBB: Don’t put political words in their mouth.
SEN. GRAHAM: You know, my election...
SEN. WEBB: You do it—you’ve been doing it ever since I’ve been in Congress.
SEN. GRAHAM: I’m up for re-election. Every Republican who’s supporting this position is doing it against the polls.
SEN. WEBB: You know, you said on the floor, “Let them win. They want it.”
SEN. GRAHAM: This is not about my election, my friend...
SEN. WEBB: They want it, my friend.
"My friend."
I don't buy that.
SEN. GRAHAM: ...this is about the next generation.
SEN. WEBB: No, you said on the floor this week, “Let them win.”
SEN. GRAHAM: The troops are not the problem. The troops can win. I...
SEN. WEBB: Thirty-five percent of the United States military agrees with the policy of this president.
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, why do they keep...
SEN. WEBB: By poll. By poll.
SEN. GRAHAM: ...re-enlisting? Why do they go back?
SEN. WEBB: Because they love their country.
SEN. GRAHAM: That’s not the problem. No, because...
SEN. WEBB: Because they love their country, they do not do it for political reasons.
SEN. GRAHAM: And they...
SEN. WEBB: My family’s been doing this since the Revolutionary war.
SEN. GRAHAM: Yeah, well, so, so has my family.
Watch the netcast.
You need to see the veins start popping out in Webb's ample forehead to get the full effect.
I don't care what either of their families have done since the Revolutionary war.
Although both Webb and Graham have reason to regret how the Meet the Press discussion played out, Webb certainly came off as deranged.
Webb behaves like an adult version of a schoolyard bully.
He's a creepy, porn-writing, gun-toting, hothead always looking for a fight.
I would not want to cross paths with Webb in a dark alley or anywhere else for that matter.
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