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Senator Jim Webb's first job approval ratings show more negatives than positives. Virginia's junior U.S. Senator has a Minus 5 approval rating. SurveyUSA polled 600 Virginia adults between January 12 and January 14, so the rating does not reflect reaction to Webb's appearance on national television last night. Virginia's new senator delivered the Democratic response to President Bush's State of the Union message. Virginia Senior Senator John Warner's approval rating went from a Plus 23 in December to a Plus 33 in January. Warner, who has recently broken with the administration policy on Iraq, saw his net approval numbers go...

<p>Washington has a way of quickly acculturating people, especially those who are most susceptible to derangement by the derivative dignity of office. But Jim Webb, Democratic U.S. senator-elect from Virginia, has become a pompous poseur and an abuser of the English language before actually becoming a senator.</p>

Newly elected Senator Jim Webb, D-Va., was so infuriated by a remark from President George W. Bush that the former Marine officer was tempted to punch the commander-in-chief. The confrontation, disclosed in the influential Washington, D.C.-based publication The Hill, came shortly after the midterm elections at a private White House reception for newly elected lawmakers. Webb, who defeated Republican Sen. George Allen in Virginia, ran a campaign critical of the administration’s Iraq policy, and has a son, a Marine lance corporal, serving in Iraq. At the reception, Bush asked Webb how his son was doing. Webb answered that he really...

WASHINGTON -- Sen.-elect Jim Webb contends the Bush administration wants to paint him as a "hothead." The former Navy secretary, whose election in Virginia put Democrats over the top in capturing the U.S. Senate, voiced that view yesterday. A White House spokeswoman flatly denied Webb's charge. "That is not true. At all," said spokeswoman Dana Perino in an e-mail. Webb confirmed published reports of an exchange at a private White House reception when he declined an invitation to be photographed with President Bush, and next declined to answer Bush's question about his son stationed in Iraq. He was told, Webb...

THAT WAS certainly swift. Washington has a way of quickly acculturating people, especially those who are most susceptible to derangement by the derivative dignity of office. But Jim Webb, Democratic senator-elect from Virginia, has become a pompous poseur and an abuser of the English language before actually becoming a senator. Wednesday's Washington Post reported that at a White House reception for newly elected members of Congress, Webb "tried to avoid President Bush," refusing to pass through the reception line or have his picture taken with the President. When Bush asked Webb, whose son is a Marine in Iraq, "How's your...

WASHINGTON -- That was certainly swift. Washington has a way of quickly acculturating people, especially those who are most susceptible to derangement by the derivative dignity of office. But Jim Webb, Democratic senator-elect from Virginia, has become a pompous poseur and an abuser of the English language before actually becoming a senator. Wednesday's Washington Post reported that at a White House reception for newly elected members of Congress, Webb "tried to avoid President Bush,'' refusing to pass through the reception line or have his picture taken with the president. When Bush asked Webb, whose son is a Marine in Iraq,...