Captain's Quarters -

"insisted that he needed to carry concealed weapons because of his stature"
Typical elitist Liberal: Self-defense for me but not for thee.
Why is Jim Webb's life more important than anyone else's in DC? Ohi, I forgot, he's a person of "stature."

Webb has stepped into the ranks of careless and irresponsible gun owner. If he indeed left the gun in a vehicle that he wasn't in control of, he may as well have left the gun in the open. Worse, if the mix up occurred in the movement of bags between cars and he couldn't even tell his aide that there was a gun there, he set the guy up to fail.

Thompson isn't blameless. Going into a security area without a clue as to what you're carrying in is asking for trouble.

OK I have not followed this close but wondered about this.

"I find that what has happened with Phillip Thompson is enormously unfortunate," Webb reported. "I was in New Orleans from last Friday until yesterday evening. I was not in town. I learned about this when I was in New Orleans."

First reports were Sen Webb was parking the car when his aide was going thru security. Has the reporting on this changed? Was he parking his car or was he in NO?

This stuff is so funny. Love that, who? what? I wasn't even in country when that happened. Real stand up guy, Mr. Webb is.

After reading that, I'm sure Mr. Thompson was comforted to know the Senator's got his six all right. Walking through fire for him and all that. Real "band of brothers" moment there.

"Thompson isn't blameless. Going into a security area without a clue as to what you're carrying in is asking for trouble."

I don't know too many people who would search their boss's bag...

Webb fits right in on Capitol Hill. Loyalty is a one way street.

I haven't read any of Webb's novels, but based on reviews -- I'd suggest that Webb functions in his own world of macho fiction. He can carry the weapon, but shoots blanks when it comes to standing up for friends or tellling the truth.

There is more to this story, whatcha wanna bet?

Being from Virginia, Webb could have made a great point about how DC's gun ban has failed, but didn't because he's nothing more than a political hack.

The DC council always complains how gun violence in DC would go away, if only DC criminals didn't have access to guns sold in Maryland and Virginia.

I can walk to DC in 10 minutes, yet crime in my neighborhood is pretty much non-existent. Is this because DC criminals don't know how to cross bridges, or because DC criminals know that if they commit a crime in Virginia, they'll get locked up? Whereas in DC, they'll get a slap on the wrist and hear how it's all the fault of society, blah, blah.

Webb is tone deaf and stone dumb. He's a terrible Senator and a sad excuse for a man.

Last fall I posted several comments relating to Webb’s penchant for screwing his staff. To repeat, when I was on OPNAV staff during Webb’s short tenure as SECNAV I knew his EA quite well. She had no advanced notice of his resignation and he just dropped her when he left the building. Unfortunately for her the Senior Navy staff had grown tired of his antics which were detrimental to the fleet. She ended up paying for his sins while he walked away. History now repeats itself with Thompson. Webb is as petty and selfish as a petulant adolescent. He lacks the seriousness to be a small town selectman in New England let alone a US Senator. I hate to say I told so, but I did?

Wierdo. In a chamber full of clowns and wind-bags, Webb stands out for his total strangeness. What on earth happened in Virginia last year? Campaigns usually weed out the wierdos and whack-jobs.

Hey, if Murtha the Younger can screw over every Marine in Iraq, including his own son, why can't he screw over one aide in Washington?

How would Webb have taken any responsibility without incriminating himself for multiple felonies? Senators do not get a free ride on the DC anti-gun bus, they're just like the rest of us.

Webb would have had to admit possession of the handgun and more than 30 rounds of ammunition within the District if he wanted to help his aide. So, possession, possession of a "Machine gun" under DC's crazy laws, possession of more than 30 rounds at one year/$500 per round.

The Senator is a one-man crime spree!

But Bob, Webb is a Democrat. A 00Democrat (licensed to kill).

Webb could have acted like Yosemite Sam in DC, firing his gun in the air, hootin', hollarin' and braying like the donkey he is, and it wouldn't have mattered.

Patrick Kennedy (D-MA) careened drunk and drugged through DC streets and ran into a concrete barrier. He got a courtesy ride home.

Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) assaulted a Capitol Policeman. She got to make pained and indignant speeches about Rosa Parks.

You can get away with pretty much anything and everything, as long as the "D" goes before your name in the District of Crazy.

That Webb doesn't know this, just makes him a stupid coward.

Webb is amazing. He has written some wonderful novels that have strong themes of honor, loyalty, and taking care of your people. To read his work he sounds like exactly the kind of officer you would want to lead your son into battle. But that would be making the major mistake of confusing fiction with real life.

In real life Webb has shown in the past, and is clearly showing now, that he believes that loyalty only goes one way.

I don't know exactly what happened, but one of these two is lying. Either the weapon is Webb's, or it is not. If it is not Webb's I would expect that he would have denied ownership in his press conference. If I assume that the weapon does belong to Webb, and that seems a reasonable assumption, then Thompson was delivering it for his boss.

It is possible that Webb told Thompson to take the bag to his house, and Thompson misunderstood and instead took it to the office. It is possible that Thompson actually knew that the weapon and the magazines were in the bag, but I find that hard to believe since everyone entering the buildings on Capitol Hill, except Members of Congress, must pass through screening. So, I guess that it is also possible that Thompson didn't know that the weapon was in the bag, and made a simple mistake of attempting to take the bag to the office instead of the house. But he was still doing what Webb told him to do.

So, where exactly is that paragon of loyalty and honor? Did he stand up and take responsibility? Did he say "It's my weapon and he was just carrying it for me."?

What loyalty! What leadership! What crap!

Marine6 Sends

Actually, Webb probably cannot be stopped from carrying the weapon in DC -- under the provision of the US Constitution that forbids arrest or interference with a member traveling to or from Congress while it is in session

Actually, he can be arrested as stated in Article II, section 6, of the US Constitution:

"They shall in all cases, except treason, FELONY and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same"

That's why he can't admit the gun is his. If it was his and the aide was bringing his briefcase back form the local DC airport, then how did it get to the airport? To admit what happened is in effect to confess to a felony.

Actually, the argument about weapons permits goes to the heart of how the Constitution operates.

Remember slavery? Remember Chief Justice Taney? Taney got it right when he said that slavery, a right guaranteed [at that time] by the Constitution, did not stop at the border of the state permitting it, and it could in fact migrate into states and territories not permitting it, since it involved property carried from one state into another, and no state could prevent commerce from another state.

The (actually rather brilliant) Commerce-based argument Taney put forth in striking down the Missouri Compromise and in the Dred Scott decision form a template available for use in other cases where a property right is allowed in one state and denied in another (DC included).

[Please don't go piling onto me because I defend Taney here; I'm quite happy the North won the Civil War and that Lincoln marginalized Taney after it began, but feel that the reason slavery ended was the South's accelerative actions in attacking and occupying Federal installations; we might still have hereditary slavery today had South Carolina not tipped the apple barrel, so to speak.]

Of course, Webb probably doesn't want to pay the costs of defending a suit of that nature, so he apparently is willing to push the crime off onto his underling.

It all comes down to who owns the gun.

What kind of marine forgets a loaded weapon?

"Webb put on quite a bizarre little show."

That's his speciality. :-(

Does anybody else foresee a scene from A Few Good Men playing out here with Jim Webb as Colonel Jessup? The more Webb is in the spotlight, the more I'm recognizing a light weight politician.

He just hired my friend's wife as his senior foreign policy advisor. This is a 30 year old woman with absolutely NO foreign policy experience. And the hits just keep onnnn comin'.

Webb wouldn't even acknowledge it was his gun. "I have never carried a gun in the Capitol complex, and I did not give the weapon to Phillip Thompson," he stipulated.

This is a very awkward way of saying that it wasn't his gun--especially because Webb never (at least in the quotes on your blog) denies that the gun is his.

To admit that it is his is not just to admit that he carries a gun around, but to admit that he carries an unregistered handgun around.

This is craven behavior and his other aides should take notice.