Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The tangled Webb we weave

OK, the Senator James "2-clip" Webb (D-VA) story just gets more and more strange. Get the details here, but in summary Webb's aide if facing felony charges, after spending a night in jail (yea, ponder that support), after taking a loaded gun with two magazines through a metal detector. The gun belonged to the Senator who said today, I saw it but can't find the link, that he needs one because a Senator doesn't have the same protection as the President.

That is all fine, heck I have a CCW, but there are rules that should be followed. Webb has a CCW for VA, but not DC or MD. Besides the Senator's strange deer-in-the-headlights response to his aide picking up the wrong bag (that is what I think happened) - there is this quote. Let's parse, shall we?
“I have never carried a gun in the Capitol complex and I did not give the weapon to Phillip Thompson, and that’s all that I think I’ll say,” Webb told reporters.
---OK, have you carried a gun in your person or in your car while in DC? Have you carried it in other locations in DC besides the Capitol complex?

---Define "..gave.." in the context you mean it. Are you saying that it was stolen? Are you saying that you did not give him that gun, in that bag, at that time, at that location? Why do you think he had it with him?

---"..all that I think I'll say.." What else is there to say? You seem to hold the President to a standard of disclosure about things many orders of magnitude greater than your aide picking up the wrong bag - where else is there that you won't say? Why?

A profile in something. Not impressive.

To be clear about something - I know Sen. Webb is a 2nd Am. supporter. As a gun nut myself, I appreciate that very much. That being said, he is a member of a Party whose leaders want to take away his right to a CCW and is responsible for his aide now facing a felony charge. Wouldn't this now be a good chance for the Junior Senator from VA to join Sen. Stevens (R-AK) in repealing the DC gun ban?

Now that would be a profile in courage - political courage for a Democrat. Senator Webb is not a coward. I wish he would turn this event into something positive.

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