Via ThinkProgress:
"But according to Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), Bush was told that Webb’s son had a recent brush with death in Iraq and was warned to be “extra sensitive” when talking to the Sen.-elect. ThinkProgress yesterday spoke with Moran’s office and confirmed the congressman’s statement, first reported by hcc in VA:
Not only did Bush know about it, he was specifically briefed on the incident before meeting with Webb, and was cautioned to be extra sensitive in speaking with Webb about his son.
After such a briefing, Bush perhaps shouldn’t have been so surprised about Webb’s unwillingness to chit-chat about his son."
2 comments:
I'd heard elsewhere that Bush's initial question to Webb - "how's your boy" - was indeed not the innocent question it might have seemed on its face. Knowing Bush's bullying nature and the similarities between himself and his nasty bitch of a mother, I would not be surprised at all if it was meant as a dig at Webb.
You got right to the heart of the conversation, Micheal. I caught some other comments on the first post I did of this: http://rantsfromtherookery.blogspot.com/2006/11/sin-of-omission.html
where a commenter over at Talking Points Memo said:
"I have a slightly different take on this.
I think Bush sought out Webb--who was rather obviously avoiding Bush--to symbolically spit in his face. "How's your boy?" was Bush's code for, "You may think you're hot spit because you have a chestful of medals and won running against me and my war, but I'm the Decider, see, and you don't have a damn thing to say about when your precious son, or any of the other troops, are going to leave Iraq. They'll stay there until I say they can go and not before. The only way your boy's getting out of there any earlier is on a stretcher or in a body bag. How do ya like *them* apples, tough guy?"
Bush intended for Webb to get it and be humiliated because he wouldn't dare answer back confrontationally in the context of a celebratory presidential reception.
Webb *did* get it, but he refused to knuckle under. It wasn't Bush's petulant response to Webb's statement about Iraq that got Webb's back up, it was the initial patently insincere inquiry about his son. The exchange
was hostile right from the start."
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