Webb apparently declined to kiss the ring.

Good for him.

Come on guys, give it your best! NewsBusters shows how real right-wingers do it: not only do they attack Webb, they go after George Will for not attacking enough!!

Heck yeah! Let this be a lesson to you all!

I'd rather gossip about celebrity relationships.

Anyone get caught with the nanny today?

To think - such boorishness ... among elected officials no less! Next thing you know, some choleric vice president will be dropping the f-word on the floor of the Senate.

Please. Spare me the indignation and apologetics both.

to a relatively small group (less than 100 people) at an EIA convention in DC post-impeachment. When he came into the room, I stood up and applauded. (A number in the audience [including several in their twenties] did not, which shocked me.) I listened politely to his speech, applauded, then stood and applauded again as he left. A minor, even insignificant story, except that I held very strong feelings against the man at the time. It never occurred to me to show those feelings by dissing him at a public event. That would have been rude, and contrary to how I was raised.

Maybe this has no relevance to Webb's situation - he's a big gun with a kid in Iraq, while I was just a minor audience member. But would it have killed Webb to be polite?

It pains me to feel so, but I think Sen. Webb was wrong. I probably share every sentiment that led him to act like that, but the ability to maintain meaningful discourse - particularly in the face of passionate disagreement - is key to our survival of the potential crises ahead. As bad as things seem they can get a lot worse, and if the new Senator from Virginia can't even be in the same room as the President then how does he propose to get anything done? Does he expect to simply go over the President's head with his bare majority?

I have no doubt that George Bush the man deserved everything Webb had to give him, but George Bush the President required respect. I could be wrong, but as terribly disrespectful as the entire Republican Senate was to Bill Clinton in the press or in debate, I don't recall any of them ever disrespecting him to his face, which is definitely a kind of escalation. What next? Rotten tomatoes during the State of the Union?

Apologize, Senator Webb. On principle.

to put ones like this first:

I would submit that no American in history has done more to cover the Presidency of the United States with disrepute than George Walker Bush and his merry band of criminals, incompetents, and downright psychopaths.

That will signal me to skip the rest of your post and send you the phone number of a good psychiatrist.

So The Decider gets in Webb's face and asks/demands to know how Webb's Marine 2nd Lt "boy" is dodging the IEDs in Iraq (in so many words) [while Bush daughters are partying in Argentina, and Bush nephews are doing whatever]?

Bush's sharp bullying retort would seem to confirm that intimidation was indeed his intent with his unctuous "How's your boy doing" question.

.. unless its a hurricane in New Orleans.

was scripted to set up a confrontation. George Will is a known partisan who edited the conversation between Bush and Webb to heighten the dramatic effect. "That's not what I asked" was edited from Will's version of the conversation.

George Will wrote a hit piece, therefore any crying he does about "civility" is utter [forvm deleted term].

A lot of Repubs seem to think Bush should be treated like a King. They seem to believe that no one is allowed to take offense to anything Dubya says because he is the President. We all must answer Bush's questions no matter how offended we may be by them.

Maybe Repubs can't understand why Webb was offended, but he clearly was offended by the casual manner in which Bush asked about his son. If I asked a business colleague about his son and got a less than friendly response then I most likely wouldn't ask the same question two seconds later. Maybe I am wierd like that but it seems to me neither Webb nor Bush acted too politely. Having said that I still give the benefit of the doubt to Webb becasue the topic of conversation was his son and a father has a right to be touchy about that subject. Bush, OTOH, doesn't have a right to have his questions answered.

Move over Stephen Colbert, the ‘speaking truth to power’ crowd has a new hero. Well, at least they’ve moved past the realm of entertainers.

Mr. Higgins,

Then we might as well build bunkers all over Washington and start open warfare. There will be no politics going on any longer.

Apparently, a polite response to a polite question is too much for Virginia's new golden boy and his fan base.

On the bright side, Jane Hamsher and the rest of the lunatic fringe apparently managed to elect a punk to represent their values in Congress after all--congratulations are apparently in order.