Les Payne: Bush Can't Dodge Webb's Critique

[marmar]

Bush can't dodge Webb's critique
January 28, 2007

The president's State of the Union address was rocked Tuesday by the improvised explosive device set off by the freshman senator from Virginia. The eight-minute rebuttal by Democratic Sen. Jim Webb tracked closer to the reality of the current affairs of state than the 49-minute ramble of George W. Bush.

Having squeaked past Republican George Allen for his seat, Webb is stranger neither to conflict nor to the written word. The novelist, filmmaker, Vietnam veteran and author of books on military strategy is also a former U.S. secretary of the Navy. Not one to suffer fool politicians, Webb reportedly resigned as secretary rather than shrink the Navy.

After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi welcomed the president as the Democrats' warm smile, Webb came on as the party's clenched fist. In November, when Bush inquired about his Marine son, Webb answered, "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President." Bush shot back, "That's not what I asked you. How's your boy?" The newly elected Webb countered, "That's between me and my boy," who'd just had a battlefield brush with death.

During his rebuttal, Webb's high regard for the "war president" worked its way into the set of his jaw as his cold eyes measured Bush's speech and found it woefully lacking in credibility.

Bush proposed a tax-cut scheme for health care, alternative fuel sources and a balanced federal budget. In announcing a five-year plan to eliminate huge deficits, Bush neglected to mention that upon taking office in 2001 he inherited a huge surplus. Still, in his imagined economy, Bush inclined all arrows upward.

Webb described a different country entirely, one that distributes benefits unfairly. "When I graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what the average worker did; today, it's nearly 400 times," he said. "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." ......(more)

The rest of the column is at: http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-oppay285069236jan28,0,6332796.column?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines

[demnan]

1. When everything is so obvious

it's hard for a bullshitter to avoid the truth.

[Benhurst]

2. Recommended #2

[snowbear]

3. I was #3 !!

Two more!

[williesgirl]

4. Glad to be 4th - c'mon, need one more!