Webb gives us a foretaste

From The American Spectator:

As both our esteemed editor, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., and George Will have pointed out, it didn't take long for Senator-elect Jim Webb, representing the courtly Southern gentlemen of Virginia, to demonstrate that he himself is no gentleman. At a White House reception he publicly snubbed his host, President Bush, and took the occasion of the President's polite inquiry after his son, a Marine serving in Iraq, as an invitation to air his political differences with him. "Boor" (Mr. Will's word) and "cad" (Mr. Tyrrell's) do not seem terms too strong to describe such deplorable behavior, though some people might have pointed out that it could hardly be counted a surprise in a man who makes such a public fuss about his record of military service and uses it to belittle and intimidate others -- a man who, moreover, is apparently unashamed of having achieved his present eminence by turning his coat and betraying so many of his former friends and colleagues in the Republican party.

What Mr. Tyrrell is too much of a Southern gentleman to utter and Mr. Will is too prissy to say is that James Webb is an asshole.

James Webb took a job in Ronald Reagan's first administration as Secretary of the Navy. He held the job for a short time during which he managed to alienate everyone with whom he came into contact. He resigned his position in a huff because everyone he had to deal with in the Pentagon, the White House and Congress was not sufficiently deferential to him - to massive sighs of relief in the Pentagon, the White House and Congress. He then spent the next decade bad mouthing Ronald Reagan.

Mr. Webb used to describe Bill Clinton as the worst president in the history of the Republic, until he accepted Mr. Clinton's help in fundraising. He refused to shake hands with John Kerry because of Kerry's slanders of US servicemen serving in Vietnam. Now Mr. Kerry is his mentor and sponsor in the Senate.

Mr. Webb's war record proves beyond doubt that he possesses personal courage, aggressiveness and intelligence. All of these traits are necessary to make on a success on the battlefield, however none of these characteristics require a person to also possess integrity, loyalty, class, good taste or manners. Webb has none of these things.

Tigers do not change their stripes nor leopards their spots. Webb will stink up the Senate just like he stank up the Pentagon. Come 2012 there will be as many Democrats happy to see Webb go as there are Republicans now who are glad to see Lincoln Chaffee get the boot.