Update: Jim Webb vs George Bush, Robert Gates
A Richmond Times Dispatch article out today provides updates on TWO stories we've been following over the past couple of weeks or so. First, on November 13 we told you that Jim Webb reportedly wanted a chance to vote on Robert Gates, who is Bush's nominee to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. A syndicated column by Conservative writer Robert Novak reported that Gates and Webb had some bad blood between them dating back to when Webb worked as Secretary of the Navy for Ronald Reagan. However, Webb denies that report:
"I don't even know him," Webb said of Gates.
In fact, Jim Webb believes the White House is deliberately trying to paint him as a "hothead," and that they (the White House) are responsible for leaking the details of the exchange between him and Bush in an effort to do so.
"I think one of the strategies of the administration, it seems to be to try to say early on that I'm a hothead, you know, or that I can't work in the political process, or whatever."
The White House though, denies both leaking the details of the exchange, and trying to paint Webb as a "hothead."
The article then goes on to give the details of the exchange between Webb, and Bush, which I won't bother to repeat (again). It does however, raise questions as to who leaked the details of the exchange (originally thought to be someone who leaned towards Webb), as well as bringing up questions about the credibility of the Robert Novak article regarding possible bad blood between Webb, and Gates.
6 comments:
It never ends.
Webb just spent a full year trying to fight off the most underhanded and slanderous smears imaginable in the campaign, and no sooner does he get elected then he's facing the same treatment.
Character assassins rule this government and they'll do anything they can to keep a great American like Jim Webb from standing up for working families and veterans.
Keep on fighting, Jim!
This strategy is no different than the one that G.W. Bush and his team used with McCain in 2000 (e.g. spreading a whisper campaign about McCain's out of control temper).
It is a statement about G.W.'s character that he would attempt to use Webb's son as the bait. Absolutely no class.
This would not be the first time the White House used Novak to destory a political enemy......
The more things change, the more they stay the same
TERRY...
I saw your post over at Vivians about getting your feeds right.
I'm also on Blogger Beta.
Would you please email me at mosquito_pest at yahoo.com?
I definitely need some help!!
Thanks....Buzz...Buzz....Mosquito
I was wondering how this story came out, since Webb didn't say anything at all about it after the dinner. And yes, it does appear someone's trying to paint him as a hothead. They can't possibly swiftboat him, so they're going for a more subtle attack.
Mosquito, shoot me an email to theliberalprogressive.blogspot.com and let me know what the problem is. I feel your pain not being able to get leftyblogs working, my blog is relatively new and once it FINALLY started to work for me, my traffic went up as much as 5x on a daily basis. I'll try my best to help you :-D
Catzmaw, yeah, it's definately a question I didn't think to ask. A lot of people were quick to assume that it was someone close to Webb.
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