And Senator Webbs Response...

Some of us get it.

Some of us, like Jim Webb; and like me, slept with pictures of our Fathers because our Fathers were overseas, missing their families and doing their duty. It was a bargain made willingly, at least by the adults. They agreed to stand in the gap, and in return the government they served agreed to use sound judgment and common sense and not abuse the service of those men and women who entered into that bargain.

We understand sacrifice and we understand what service means.

Like I said...We get it. The president doesn't. Jim Webb's rebuttal to the presidents speech was powerful and moving and spot-on. Thank you Senator Webb! I am so proud to be a Democrat right now that I could burst.

Transcript of Senator Webb's Rebuttal

Good evening.

I'm Senator Jim Webb, from Virginia, where this year we will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown - an event that marked the first step in the long journey that has made us the greatest and most prosperous nation on earth.

It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President's message, nor would it be useful. Let me simply say that we in the Democratic Party hope that this administration is serious about improving education and healthcare for all Americans, and addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans.

Further, this is the seventh time the President has mentioned energy independence in his state of the union message, but for the first time this exchange is taking place in a Congress led by the Democratic Party. We are looking for affirmative solutions that will strengthen our nation by freeing us from our dependence on foreign oil, and spurring a wave of entrepreneurial growth in the form of alternate energy programs. We look forward to working with the President and his party to bring about these changes.

There are two areas where our respective parties have largely stood in contradiction, and I want to take a few minutes to address them tonight. The first relates to how we see the health of our economy - how we measure it, and how we ensure that its benefits are properly shared among all Americans. The second regards our foreign policy - how we might bring the war in Iraq to a proper conclusion that will also allow us to continue to fight the war against international terrorism, and to address other strategic concerns that our country faces around the world.

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. Good American jobs are being sent along with them.

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. Our workers know this, through painful experience. Our white-collar professionals are beginning to understand it, as their jobs start disappearing also. And they expect, rightly, that in this age of globalization, their government has a duty to insist that their concerns be dealt with fairly in the international marketplace.

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. Not with the numbers that come out of Wall Street, but with the living conditions that exist on Main Street. We must recapture that spirit today.

And under the leadership of the new Democratic Congress, we are on our way to doing so. The House just passed a minimum wage increase, the first in ten years, and the Senate will soon follow. We've introduced a broad legislative package designed to regain the trust of the American people. We've established a tone of cooperation and consensus that extends beyond party lines. We're working to get the right things done, for the right people and for the right reasons.

With respect to foreign policy, this country has patiently endured a mismanaged war for nearly four years. Many, including myself, warned even before the war began that it was unnecessary, that it would take our energy and attention away from the larger war against terrorism, and that invading and occupying Iraq would leave us strategically vulnerable in the most violent and turbulent corner of the world.

I want to share with all of you a picture that I have carried with me for more than 50 years. This is my father, when he was a young Air Force captain, flying cargo planes during the Berlin Airlift. He sent us the picture from Germany, as we waited for him, back here at home. When I was a small boy, I used to take the picture to bed with me every night, because for more than three years my father was deployed, unable to live with us full-time, serving overseas or in bases where there was no family housing. I still keep it, to remind me of the sacrifices that my mother and others had to make, over and over again, as my father gladly served our country. I was proud to follow in his footsteps, serving as a Marine in Vietnam. My brother did as well, serving as a Marine helicopter pilot. My son has joined the tradition, now serving as an infantry Marine 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.

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. 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.

On both of these vital issues, our economy and our national security, it falls upon those of us in elected office to take action.

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.

Thank you for listening. And God bless America.

Better late than never

I am really late to this party – Martha Plimpton in 200 Cigarettes , late-to-her-own-party - late. But damnit, I have to say to Jim Webb – You should have slugged the aWol sonuvabitch.

Everyone, I am sure, knows by now that Jim Webb wanted to hang one on the chin of Dubya. At a White House reception for the newly elected congress, Webb made an effort to avoid the president, even going so far as to skip the receiving line, but eventually ran out of luck and had to talk to the sonuvabitch.

Bush is a smarmy fucking rich-kid bully, and he uses the tactics of the smarmy rich-kid bully. He shows no class, he just shows his ass. Everyone knows Senator-elect Webb has a son who is a Marine serving in Iraq right now. Bush asked him “How’s your boy?” and Webb responded “Well, I’d sure like to get him out of Iraq.” Bush snapped back “That’s not want I asked you. I asked how your boy is.” And Webb responded “Mr. President, that’s between me and my boy.” (Personally, had I been speaking for Jim Webb, he would have said something like “I wish he was enjoying the nightlife of Argentina instead of Baghdad, but oh well…some are privileged to serve; while some are too privileged to serve, like your Brats of Privilege™, Mr. President.”)

Of course, loyal GOP waterboy George Will edited his own papers reporters and omitted part of the exchange and tried to make Webb look like the asshole who fired first, called him a "boor" who should have observed social graces, and it backfired. A thousand comments were registered to the WaPo website, almost all taking Will to the woodshed. Milhouse got a Wedgie from the readers, that’s for damned sure.

Anyway, Jim, if you ever do clock the sonuvabitch, I’m good for a hundred bucks bail money.

WEBB WINS

CBS just sent a crawler across the bottom of the screen during Jericho. Virginia goes to Webb, and we did indeed run the table.

I'm having a beer.

Allen should concede

It's a strange day indeed when I am in agreement with the folks over at the Red State dot org blog; normally I find all their opinions barking mad. But then again, what the hell is ordinary about a day like today?

Webb is ahead and his lead is holding steady at about 8000 votes. This is too many for a recount to make up. It's over. We have, in effect, kicked George Felix's soft teeth down his whining throat, to borrow some of the senators own violent imagery.

Allen may be refusing to concede, but that has not stopped Webb from declaring victory.

At 2 a.m., according to unofficial results tallied by the state of Virginia, Webb had a lead of 4,745 votes over Allen. With 2,433 out of 2,443 precincts reporting Webb had 1,162,004 votes and Allen had 1,157,259 votes.
Just after 1 a.m., Webb claimed victory. "The votes are in and we won," he told his supporters. Webb had appeared before his supportes about two hours earlier and predicted he would win.

"We've been following this in great detail," Webb said, "It looks very, very good for our side." He said he expected to pick up votes in the 11th Congressional District in Northern Virginia and that his campaign was confident that he'd do very well when the absentee ballots were counted.

"It's going to take a while, but at some point soon, I think we are going to be on top," Webb said.

Virginia has a Democratic Senator, one who will ably represent the citizens of that state and who knows first hand how decisions made by politicians affect military personnel. He will fight for what is right, whether it is popular or not.

And Jim Webb will work to bring an end to the insanity of the Iraq war. He has skin in the game.

It looks like a whole lot of people have had enough

If the election were tomorrow, the Democrats would pick up 35 seats in the House and at least 4 seats in the Senate, possibly the 6 they need to have a majority, and with it, cloture.

The political climate today is worse for the incumbent majority than it was in 1994 when the Republicans took over. Independent political researcher Stuart Rothenberg predicts "a Democratic wave" on November 7.

Charlie Cook, publisher of The Cook Political Report, was more specific. He predicted this weekend that Republicans are most likely to see a net loss of 20 to 35 seats in the House, and with them their majority in the lower chamber.

In the Senate, according to Cook, Republicans were poised to lose at least four, but possibly five or six seats.

The list of most endangered Republican senators included Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Conrad Burns of Montana.

They could easily be joined by Jim Talent of Missouri and George Allen of Virginia, who are fighting for their political lives in very tight races, analysts said.

These poll numbers had Bush on the campaign trail, but one has to wonder about the length of his coattails when his approval rating is mired in the thirties. He "spiked" upward to 37% approval after consistently polling about 33% for several weeks running. But really, anything Bush can accomplish for the party looks like it will be too little, too late.

The economy, once the Republican parties ace-in-the-hole, Americans favor Democrats to manage things better by a 47 percent to 34 percent margin. Likewise, they have fallen out of favor as the part best able to deal with the threat of terrorism, having seen their strong lead turn into a statistical tie of 40 percent to 39 percent.

But the most stinging rebuke of all: By a 12 percent margin, Americans now trust Democrats rather than Republicans to handle Iraq. The Newsweek poll found 45percent of Americans trust Democrats on the prosecution of the war, versus 33 percent who favor the Republicans.

On broad policy issues, 53 percent of likely voters said they favored Democrats, to 39 percent Republican.

Victory is within reach, folks. In fact, at this point, it's ours to lose. We have nine days to put Claire McCaskill and Jim Webb over the top in Missouri and Virginia. Nancy Boyda has nine days to close the narrow, within-the-margin-of-error gap and unseat Jim Ryun in the Kansas-02. Nine days for Sara Jo Shettles to continue building her base to unseat Sam Graves in the Missouri-06.

This is our year. A whole lot of news was dumped in the Friday news cycle. If that was just the beginning, and this week gets worse for the Republicans, we get the Senate too. Hell, we may even have a majority of Governors Mansions.