SOTU and Webb Spin

I preferred to read the State of the Union Address rather than see it this year, as it's both easier to rebut on paper, and easier to stomach. But I was driving when I heard the President, in a moment of unity and bipartisanship, completely blow it by slurring his opponents:

What a strange man. After disarmingly gracious opening remarks about Nancy Pelosi's speakership, the president congratulates the 'Democrat majority' -- words most every Democrat takes as a calculated insult. The prepared remarks say "Democratic majority". But apparently he couldn't help himself.

That was the end of the graciousness, the shadow play of civility and comity that marks this political circus every year. He came to make peace and used words of war. It shows you exactly who you're dealing with in this President.

As for the speech, it bordered on irrelevant. If anything beyond the immigration proposal gets enacted, I'd be shocked. I think that rhetorically speaking it was extremely important for the future that Bush used the words "climate change." I really think that will get the ball rolling toward serious public policy in the states and around the world, if not by the federal government. In fact, a lot of the speech portrayed a certain impotence of the federal government to do anything, basically giving up on government as a whole in favor of private enterprise and state-run measures. On health care, Bush wants to send grants to the states (at the expense of funding care for the uninsured at public hospitals). On expanding the military, he wants a "Civilian Reserve Corps" to continue the takeover of the Army by "talented civilians," which happens now, only under the name of private contractors and mercenary security units. On energy, he wants to reduce gasoline use, but only from projected levels instead of today's levels, meaning gas usage would not fall hardly at all under his plan. And on Iraq, he used the Joe Lieberman technique of saying "please give me another chance" while talking of the Hieronymous Bosch painting that would ensue if we redeployed. Hell would be a picnic, apparently. I'm just tired of the doomsday scenarios, especially when I don't believe them to be at all accurate. And I'm especially tired of the idea that we're not ALREADY there. Iraq is so "democratic" that the parliament hasn't met in over three months. They can't get a quorom because nobody can show up to work. And it's more than that.

Part of the problem is security, but Iraqi officials also said they feared that members were losing confidence in the institution and in the country’s fragile democracy. As chaos has deepened, Parliament’s relevance has gradually receded.

Deals on important legislation, most recently the oil law, now take place largely out of public view, with Parliament — when it meets — rubber-stamping the final decisions. As a result, officials said, vital legislation involving the budget, provincial elections and amendments to the Constitution remain trapped in a legislative process that processes nearly nothing. American officials long hoped that Parliament could help foster dialogue between Iraq’s increasingly fractured ethnic and religious groups, but that has not happened, either.

It's just silly to suggest that we're bringing peeance and freeance to a country in this state. And more are dying in Baghdad every day, even though the new way forward has already begun.

But as I predicted, the real speech didn't begin until after the President left the rostrum, and Jonathan Alter was quite impressed.

Something unprecedented happened tonight, beyond the doorkeeper announcing, "Madame Speaker." For the first time ever, the response to the State of the Union Message overshadowed the president's big speech. Virginia Sen. James Webb, in office only three weeks, managed to convey a muscular liberalism—with personal touches—that left President Bush's ordinary address in the dust. In the past, the Democratic response has been anemic—remember Washington Gov. Gary Locke? This time it pointed the way to a revival for national Democrats.

Webb is seen as a moderate or even conservative Democrat, but this was a populist speech that quoted Andrew Jackson, founder of the Democratic Party and champion of the common man. The speech represented a return to the tough-minded liberalism of Scoop Jackson and Hubert Humphrey, but by quoting Republicans Teddy Roosevelt (on "improper corporate influence") and Dwight D. Eisenhower (on ending the Korean War), he reinforced the argument that President Bush had taken the GOP away from its roots.

Webb was given a speech to read by the Democratic leadership. He threw it out and wrote his own. As a well-regarded novelist, Webb has a sense of narrative and human drama. He apparently felt that the boots his son wore in Iraq, which he used to great effect during his successful Senate campaign against Sen. George Allen, might be a bit hokey. So instead, he showed a picture of his father during the Berlin airlift. He then went on to describe taking the picture to bed every night and his family's long record of military service.

Webb's speech was forcefully written and powerful, because there was the sense of a thinking human being behind it, one who has carefully considered the consequences of actions at home and abroad, and has come to common sense conclusions.

So naturally, the right flipped out (and look underneath for all of the approving links to Dan Riehl's remarks). The same old "cut-n-runner" labels are put on Webb, and they can't possibly stick. He was right on the war since before there was a war, and the Bush defenders can't get around that. So they try to bully and call him a defeatist, but to the country at large I suspect he came off as, simply, impressive. A real person. Unlike these cartoon caricatures we've been dealing with for the last six years.

Finally, it's important that you all go and look at this. Michelle Bachmann, new Republican theocon representative from Minnesota, spends about a minute with her hand on Bush's shoulder waiting for a big hug. The funniest bit was the patter from the local news reporters, who awkwardly say "Well, she got the face time, it paid off, I guess!" In the way that stalking pays off, yes.