Did You Know Webb Tore Up the Speech He Was Given By the Dem. Party?

[berni_mccoy]

Traditionally, the opposition Response is written by the Party leaders and given to the chosen person to present.

Webb would have none of it. He ripped up the speech he was given and wrote his own. And he didn't obey the time rules. He spoke his mind. He spoke the truth.

On Edit: That is what was reported on NBC just prior to his speech. I don't know if it is actually true.

[Captain Hilts]

1. It was a GREAT speech. Really great. nt

[More Than A Feeling]

2. Webb is on our side.

'nuff said.

[rainy]

3. He was spectacular tonight. You are all very welcome as I live in VA and worked

on his campaign.

[Vadem]

23. Me too!!!! and I am so proud of our Jim!!! ..........n/t

[patrice]

4. Ripped it up? Really? Why would he be hostile?

Don't you think he just respectfully declined like any professional would do if he chose to write his own?

[berni_mccoy]

8. That was how it was reported on MSNBC.

Don't know how overblown it was reported. But that's what they said.

[patrice]

13. Oh, it was on TV so it must be true.

[berni_mccoy]

56. Actually it is. (not because it was on TV though)

Someone found more info on this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x25154

He didn't rip it up though, he just threw it away and wrote his own. But rip it up is how NBC reported it.

[hlthe2b]

11. I think that was meant to be "figurative"

Either Timmy or Brian Williams used the phrase, but I don't think it was meant to be literal.

[napi21]

20. Just maybe he's as pissed as we are at being TOLD what to say?

I really like everything I've seen of Webb, and you know Bill Clinton did the same thing quite often! I don'tfault him at all for doing that, in fact, I congratulate him for saying what HE believes, and notsome group of writers told him to say!

Too damn bad Shrub can't ever do that! I cringe at his speeches as they have been, can you just imagine if he wrote his own???? ARRGGGUUHHHH

[patrice]

27. I know what you mean.

I hate the way groups, especially political groups, get all tense and weird if someone puts a microphone in front of a member who is not THE designated spokes-person.

I understand everything about the necessity of getting a message across and not confusing or distracting listeners/readers, but an essential part of oppression is the silence of the oppressed. Finding one's voice is an essential part of freedom.

[SoCalDem]

47. If he wrote his own

Iraq is a country
Iraq is a big country
Mean people live there
They are evil
We must kill them
911 made us do it
Iraq is a long way off (I think it's near Paris)
There was a prison there named Abbey Grabby (or sumthin like that)
Bad things happened there (and they =tried to blame it on us..but we di'nt do it)


Oh.. I almost forgot. A how-ya-doin' to that gal, Nancy who's the boss of congress now.

Every problem we have can be fixed with TWO little words




Tax cut.,

Thanks fer comin' to see my speech

[tbyg52]

55. I think this deserves its own post! nt

[hlthe2b]

5. Good for him... He's a far more accomplished writer

and articulate and intelligent spokesperson than any speechwriter they would likely have come up with. Plus he had a personal message--one that SHOULD be the Dem party platform.

[aquart]

6. Well, I liked it.

Wonder what the other one looked like?

[Pithy Cherub]

12. Snicker. It was from the Keep Your Powder Dry

people probably! ;)

[Drum]

7. Maybe a few more of them should.

:shrug:

[KittyWampus]

9. Edit- It sounds like a story. And since when is the response

written by Party leaders?

I have never heard that. I've heard the response has to be run by leadership. But never that it was always a canned speech.

[journalist3072]

16. Yep, that's what they reported on tv..that Webb tore up the speech written for him

and wrote his own...A relative of mine called me and told me that was being reported on tv.

[KittyWampus]

17. It might be true! But the story sounds like enmity between Webb and Leadership.

Or at least not an accord between them.

so I will use a grain of salt. :)

[Deep13]

10. Hell yeah! Hell yeah! Hell yeah!

Alright, kids, our word for today is "reckless." Let's try a sentence: Bush recklessly led us to war.

[C_U_L8R]

14. Good... committees write lousy speeches

ever person should speak in their own words.

(unfortunately for chimp.. all we'd hear would be "eep eep eep")

[Raster]

15. Bravo for Webb! He chose wisely.

My favorite part (bold emphasis mine):

Iraq

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.

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

[FrenchieCat]

18. That's what I'm talking about.....

An new kind of Democratic leaders! the Warrior Scholars! They are sworn to protect our constitution, from enemies within and out!


Jim Webb and Wes Clark: The Return of the Warrior/Scholar
The generation has turned. And instead I see Jim Webb, warrior/scholar of Virginia, of whom his new constituents in the Old Dominion today sport bumper stickers which read, “My Senator is Fearless.” He is the "monkey god" awakening an entirely new paradigm; a new generation and a new Democratic culture of leadership, professionalism, valor and excellence in all areas of governance and its attendant industries like press and public relations. And he is prelude to Wesley Clark.
http://quigleyblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/jim-webb-and-wes-clark-return-of.html

also read this, as it is hell of interesting!
http://www.rapidfire-silverbullets.com/2007/01/2008_candidatestoo_much_of_a_g.html

[951-Riverside]

19. You show them Webb!!

Its about time someone took a stand against liberalism!

:sarcasm:

[Vidar]

21. Damn good move.

[Divine Discontent]

25. if true,

this is awesome... he probably thought, good grief, I'm a writer, I can do this myself, and I want to speak what I feel with an understanding of what is expected of me... he focused on the two main things I would've begged him to, iraq and the poor economy and living conditions for most of us.


www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- antibush prodem stickers/shirts

[FredStembottom]

22. I suspected EXACTLY that!

It was so free of weasel-words - that Democrat speciality that has been the only product of our party for decades.

Go Jim!:yourock:

[Bucky]

24. I completely believe this report, because there's no way he has a carefully staged public persona

Guy like that, he's the real deal, a rebel, a take charge kinda guy. You'd have to be pretty cynical to suspect that his political ambitions are fed by leaking exaggerated stories like this that also happen to distance him from the nameless "party leaders," you know those bicoastal liberals that Virginia voters don't trust. Nope, ol' Jim just calls 'em like he sees 'em. Dare we say... he's a "maverick"?


Please tell me you don't need a bleeding sarcasm icon to get this

[Wizard777]

26. It was right on target. I don't care who wrote it. It was memorable.

[madfloridian]

28. That might explain this exchange between Dean and Blitzer today.

Wolf asks if they have come up with a consensus.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/23/sitroom.02.html


"DEAN: A consensus about what?

BLITZER: About the response on Iraq, for example, that what he lays out...

DEAN: Oh, sure.

BLITZER: ... in his Democratic response to what the president will say in his speech is something that you and the different wings of the Democratic Party can all accept?

DEAN: Well, it's hard to agree ahead of time when you haven't seen the script, so I don't know what Jim is going to say...

BLITZER: You haven't seen what his agenda --

DEAN: ... you know -- no. We don't -- we don't control our members like that. You know, I think Jim is a star in the Democratic Party. He's -- he certainly knows what he's talking about when it comes to warfare, as a former Defense Department higher-up. And he's going to be a great spokesman for the Democratic Party, as he was during the campaign."

Interesting.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

29. Question: How is it determined, who gives these responses?

Just curious.

For those of you interested in Webb, I'd refer you to this speech of his in 2003, long before he ever became a Democratic politician. I used to email it to Republicans since he had "Republican credentials" having been from the Reagan administration and having spent a career in the military:

http://www.jameswebb.com/speeches/ethicsinpostwariraq.htm

GOVERNMENT ETHICS IN THE POST-IRAQ WAR ERA
Remarks by James Webb at
The Investment Dealers Association, Canada
23 June 2003

It pains me to point this out, but in my view the United States invasion of Iraq was one of the most ill-advised and reckless actions that the US government has ever taken. I make this statement not as a knee-jerk anti-war activist, but as one who still proudly defends our effort in Vietnam, and who has spent a total of five years inside the Pentagon.

We should start with the premise that a unilateral war - a war in which a country attacks another when it has not been itself attacked - must be undertaken only when the country's national survival is clearly at stake, or under circumstances where the international community is so threatened that a strong power such as the US must save it from an enormous menace. Iraq clearly did not meet either of those tests.

Additionally, I find it regrettable that the Bush administration squandered an historic opportunity to unify most of the world against the notion of organized international terrorism, and through its relentless pursuit of war against Iraq created instead an era of unprecedented bad feelings. The present administration accomplished this through a puzzling campaign of arrogance and condescension toward long-time allies, and by completely redefining the war against terrorism until it became a war against Iraq.

This “morphing” of the war against international terrorism into the invasion and occupation of Iraq had its roots in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when many neo-conservatives, led by the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal and key figures in such think tanks as the American Enterprise Institute, believed that the US should have continued on to Baghdad after ejecting the Iraqis from Kuwait, in order to establish their dream of a “MacArthurian regency” in Iraq. In the first days after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, these well-placed advocates, many of whom are serving in the Bush Administration, moved quickly to justify not a general response against Al Qaeda, but an all-out invasion of Iraq, possibly followed by invasions in Iran and Syria. While their logic was that an Iraq invasion would make the world a safer place, proper strategic thinking actually argued in the opposite direction. If terrorism was principally a Mideast phenomenon prior to 9/11, after that date it was clearly a global dilemma. This made it imperative that smarter minds in America resist the notion of taking over one country in one region, potentially for decades, when the threat now extended across several continents and through a large percentage of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims.
...

[ellisonz]

30. Verification?

[Leilani]

31. But, Bob Shrum is such an elegant speech writer!

Duh!

[Warren DeMontague]

32. Damn Right! He Tore That Fucker UP!

That was the best speech I've seen in a while. Really well done, Jim.

[Scout1071]

33. Great. K&R.

[femrap]

34. I bet he did write his own speech.....

why? Because it's the best damn speech I have heard from a Democrat in years! Robber Barons....he said Robber Barons! WOW!

It was so nice to hear some damn Truth. I most certainly know that Harry Reid would never have written this.

[Swamp Rat]

35. And Webb mentioned New Orleans right away

:applause:

[Pachamama]

53. Yeah, I mean Bushit mentioned New Orleans immediately in his speech...

:eyes:

Hi Swamp'r! Wasn't that a great response by Jim Webb? I really like him and he comes across as a "don't f*ck with me " person. Firm, sincere and tough - yet caring.

I loved it when he showed the picture of his Dad and then talked about his families sacrifices...that really was an address to all the soldiers and their families and a reminder to the American public that people like Webb know about sacrifice and that we all owe those that sacrifice and that it doesn't come in the form of just blindly standing behind the Commander in Chief making bad decisions.

Aaahh....New Orleans....the fact that Bush didn't even mention her is just disgusting....

[Swamp Rat]

54. oi!

:hug:

[Imagevision]

36. I'm sure with his son serving in Iraq had something to do with doing it his way!!

[Cocoa]

37. the party gave him a speech to read?

sounds dubious.

[Clinton_Co_Regulator]

38. What if NBC just set him up?

The tore up speech to get a rather debunking tomorrow, nullifying the message and the messenger.

Sorry, just habit I guess.

[berni_mccoy]

39. I wouldn't put it past them... media driven hit runs are part and parcel when it comes to taking out

a strong Democratic candidate or politician.

Remember the whole debacle the media bought into about Webb's book... they ran with the false-pornography story during the election... Webb survived it quite well though.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

40. I'm not sure I understand your point at all. Rather-gate had to do with questioning the reality of

documents.

What does it matter whether Webb gave his own written response or that from someone else, if it was a great response?

[frogcycle]

41. so its a different scenario from rather

but the point is still, IF NBC ran the story knowing he really didn't write it, then when it came out HE would be accused of having falsely claimed...

anyway, i believe the story to be true. He was not speaking anyone elses words.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

42. If it was a great response and the words are true, what does it matter who wrote it?

[frogcycle]

43. it doesn't

except if the rw manage to say Webb CLAIMED to have written it but didn't.
but no worries

[Clinton_Co_Regulator]

44. There is up on the pedestal.

And then there is knocked off the pedestal.

[berni_mccoy]

59. Anyone can speak great words given to them... Only a great person can craft those great words

[Hekate]

45. Did he now? I must say Webb gave a great speech, and I'm glad he wrote it himself.

Thank you Jim Webb! And may "your boy" return home safely and soon.

Hekate

[Oilwellian]

46. Webb will become a hero to regular folks

Mark my words....I think he's brilliant, sincere, and cares deeply for this country. We're going to hear a lot more from him in the next 2 years. Bravo Senator Webb and best wishes for your son's safe return. I'm so proud to have you as my new senator.

[Richard Steele]

48. Was the SCRIPT he rejected written by the "Dem party", or just the DLC?

[Raine]

49. Wise choice

if true because everyone is raving about his TERRIFIC speech. :thumbsup:

[jgraz]

50. Fuck that noise -- Webb's speech WAS written by a party leader

Who the hell are those other people? The Rethugs weren't the only ones who lost the elections in November. Time for the DLC to wake up and smell the irrelevance.

[Marr]

51. Who would've written the other version?

I don't know whether it was a solid speech or some mealy-mouthed DLC garbage, but either way- Webb was great. Writing his own speech worked very well.

[Warren DeMontague]

52. Cue the Jerry Garcia Band: Tore Up! (yeah, yeah, yeah) Tore Up! (Tore Up! Tore Up!)

Tore Up! (yeah, yeah, yeah) Tore Up! (Tore Up! Tore Up!)

[berni_mccoy]

57. Someone found more info on this story here ====>

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x25154

[Cobalt Violet]

58. I loved his speech.

I had to turn off the SOTU after a few minutes.

[Generator]

60. Isn't amazing how a little bit of truth

gives us hope? How it makes the media lapdogs stand up and notice? We have been fed such utter stenching piles of shit for years by Bushco and not much of a response by the Dems in return.

I was quite impresssed.

[Nutmegger]

61. Good, we're all tired of the same old song and dance

His speech was from the gut. I'm glad he's in the Senate.