Petrified of People Power

When Bill Clinton got elected, the pundit class in Washington immediately saw that he didn't fit their definition of one of their guys and they decided to trash him. They trashed him for 8 years, claiming that he didn't meet their standards, that he wasn't the "right" kind of person to hold the office. I wasn't Bill Clinton's biggest fan but I instinctively rose to defend him against this nonsense that he was insufficient because he didn't go to the right cocktail parties. "He came in and trashed the place, and it's not his place," was the famous David Broder comment.

We get the 2006 version of that from the irrelevant, out-of-touch George Will:

That was certainly swift. Washington has a way of quickly acculturating people, especially those who are most susceptible to derangement by the derivative dignity of office. But Jim Webb, Democratic senator-elect from Virginia, has become a pompous poseur and an abuser of the English language before actually becoming a senator.

This entire column comes from the one reported meeting between Webb and Bush, where Bush snapped when Webb dared to suggest that he desires to see his own son come home from Iraq. See, Bush was just being all chummy when he asked, "How's your boy," and when Webb said he'd like to see him come home, Bush was of course completely justified to spit out "I didn't ask that, I said how's your boy."

See, it's Washington, so the world outside doesn't have to ruin our good time and high spirits. Sure, thousands are being killed, that doesn't mean we can't share a cocktail and kick back, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong. Jim Webb doesn't want his picture taken with the President. He's there to make laws, and to determine the best course for the country. He's a serious person, and that's unbelievably dangerous to idiots like George Will.

Webb certainly has conveyed what he is: a boor. Never mind the patent disrespect for the presidency. Webb's more gross offense was calculated rudeness toward another human being -- one who, disregarding many hard things Webb had said about him during the campaign, asked a civil and caring question, as one parent to another. When -- if ever -- Webb grows weary of admiring his new grandeur as a "leader" who carefully calibrates the "symbolic things" he does to convey messages, he might consider this: In a republic, people decline to be led by leaders who are insufferably full of themselves.

Who's full of themselves? George Will probably hasn't paid for a lunch in 20 years. He sits on his mountaintop and decides who's naughty and nice, and passes judgment on them personally. Jim Webb doesn't buy into Washington bullshit, and so he will continue to be ostracized by the commentariat. And given how popular THEY are, he'll probably be President within 2 years.

UPDATE: Yes, I should mention that Will completely misrepresented the exchange between Bush and Webb, making Bush seem like an innocent concerned with Webb's son's well-being, eliminating the snippy "I didn't ask you that" part. Real principled newsman, that George Will.