Early Tuesday morning, Sen. Jim Webb was asked by one of a small gaggle of Virginia reporters whether his response to the State of the Union address set to be given later that night was complete.
“A great work of art is never complete,” Webb deadpanned, before running off to a foreign affairs committee hearing.
The scene of Webb taking questions from seven reporters in front of four cameras in an empty Capitol Hill hearing room was unusual and in sharp contrast to the scores of reporters and cameras that have followed the political novice since he was sworn in earlier this month. The attention has only intensified since leadership selected Webb — who had never given a speech from a teleprompter — to give the Democratic response to President Bush’s annual address to the nation.
Webb acknowledged his transition from freshman senator to party spokesman has been quick, and that he still has much to learn.
“I am watching and I am learning,” he said of his time on Capitol Hill. “At the same time, I’m glad that I’ve been receiving the kind of support from Senate leadership where they’ve asked me to give a response.”
“I’m new to the Senate, but I’m not new to the issues facing our country. I have a history of being able to work with both sides of the aisle,” he said, referring to his former membership in the Republican Party.
Later that morning, Webb, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., took questions from more than30 national and local reporters in a crowded room steps from the entrance to the Senate. Reid and Pelosi heaped praise on Webb, positioning him as the man who could bring moderates to the Democratic Party.
“I haven’t known Jim Webb very long,” Reid said, “but I know a lot about him. … He represents to me what the new America is all about, someone who has known what it means to go to war, what it means to have peace, what it means to work on a bipartisan basis.”
Webb sat stone-faced while Reid spoke, still not appearing completely comfortable with the language of national politics.
