Two Days Later, the Democratic Response Still Resonates

I've been behind on a number of subjects lately, so I was going to do a bit of link blogging to catch up. The first thing I planned to talk about was Senator Jim Webb's Democratic Response to the Prez's State of the Union Address, and then I had a handful of other subjects I was going to get to. But I started to quote more of the speech than I'd intended (because it was just that good!), and if I'd kept it the first of several items, I'd have had a post almost as long as the one looking back on State of the Union Addresses of yore. So there'll probably be link blogging tomorrow. Tonight it's all Jim Webb.

Webb, of course, is the senator from Virginia who's not George Allen. And he delivered a powerful response to the Prez's State of the Union Address on Tuesday night. I didn't think his presentation was as strong as a number of others did, but the message was certainly firm. Although many commentators have focused on the Iraqi portion, Webb was just as strong on economic matters:

Wages and salaries for our workers are at all-time lows as a percentage of national wealth, even though the productivity of American workers is the highest in the world. Medical costs have skyrocketed. College tuition rates are off the charts. Our manufacturing base is being dismantled and sent overseas. Good American jobs are being sent along with them.

In short, the middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future, is losing its place at the table. Our workers know this, through painful experience. Our white-collar professionals are beginning to understand it, as their jobs start disappearing also. And they expect, rightly, that in this age of globalization, their government has a duty to insist that their concerns be dealt with fairly in the international marketplace.

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The House just passed a minimum wage increase, the first in ten years, and the Senate will soon follow. We've introduced a broad legislative package designed to regain the trust of the American people. We've established a tone of cooperation and consensus that extends beyond party lines. We're working to get the right things done, for the right people and for the right reasons.

But, of course, it's hard not to pay attention to the Iraqi portion of his comments:

The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable - and predicted - disarray that has followed.

The war's costs to our nation have been staggering.

Financially.

The damage to our reputation around the world.

The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism.

And especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve.

One of his most clever tricks was to adopt a strategy Republicans--and Bush in particular--have been using lately. You may have noticed the Prez compares himself to Truman fairly often, and although I couldn't google a quick reference just now, it seems that he's also name-checked FDR and Wilson, suggesting that he's similarly making the world safe for democracy. Webb called upon a couple of Republican presidents, namely Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower. Roosevelt provided inspiration for his targeting of robber barons, and Ike was evoked for recognizing the futility of the Korean War and bringing it to an end. There are a couple of leaders a sitting president would do well to emulate.

But the most explosive segment of the speech was Webb's closing, which continued the inspiration from previous residents of the Oval Office:

These Presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world. Tonight we are calling on this President to take similar action, in both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.

I think we need to start that "showing him the way" part as soon as possible.