Bush snaps at Senator with son in Iraq

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein at 10:31 AM on November 30, 2006.

Wouldn't you know it? George Bush caused a scene at a White House reception for incoming members of congress. The president approached Jim Webb, the newly-elected Democratic senator from Virigina whose son is serving in Iraq.

Webb tried to avoid the boorish Commander In Chief at the reception, probably fearing exactly what happened next...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Democratic Sen.-elect Jim Webb avoided the receiving line during a recent White House reception for new members of Congress and had a chilly exchange with President Bush over the Iraq war and his Marine son.

"How's your boy?" Webb, in an interview Wednesday, recalled Bush asking during the reception two weeks ago.

"I told him I'd like to get them out of Iraq," Webb said.

"That's not what I asked. How's your boy?" the president replied, according to Webb.

At that point, Webb said, Bush got a response similar to what reporters and others who had asked Webb about Lance Cpl. Jimmy Webb, 24, have received since the young man left for Iraq around Labor Day: "I told him that was between my boy and me."

Webb, a leading critic of the Iraq war, said that he had avoided the receiving line and photo op with Bush, but that the president found him. AP]

Webb declined to be photographed with Bush at the reception.

"“I’m not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall," Webb later told reporters.

[Pensito Review]

Tagged as: iraq, webb, bush

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.