Newsweek: Webb wrote his own speech, tore up the one given by leadership.

madfloridian

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Wed Jan-24-07 12:27 AM
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Newsweek: Webb wrote his own speech, tore up the one given by leadership.

Edited on Wed Jan-24-07 12:40 AM by madfloridian

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16779514/site/newsweek/

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.

It might explain an odd exchange between Blitzer and Howard Dean today. At least it seemed odd to me.

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

BLITZER: Have you been able to come up with a consensus that all Democrats will be able to accept in Senator Webb's response tonight?

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.

What he's going to say, in general, is we ought to be looking to get out of Iraq and not adding more troops and escalating the war. I'm sure he's going to say that. What specifics he gives, I don't have any advance knowledge of.

And I swear I posted this in another thread on this a few minutes ago. I now can't find it. My browser is screwed up tonight. I think I need to uninstall something I just installed. :shrug:

It also makes one wonder why a belated request went out from the DNC to send our thoughts to Webb about the speech. That might be reaching, though. It was such a late request.

I was so proud of Webb tonight, I had tears in my eyes.