BUSH vs SENATOR JAMES WEBB-- IS THERE A WAY OUT OF IRAQ?

It's awesome that Al Gore's movie got 2 nominations for Oscars. But even if you never heard of the Polly awards, I bet you know what the Emmy Awards are and this Friday we find out if we're nominated. I use that "we" pretty widely. Let me explain. At the very end of the October film maker Lars Sandvik approached Blue America about helping him run an ad, the Stamp Act, for Jim Webb, the Democratic challenger (now Senator) who was locked in the tightest race for a Senate seat in the country (against the loony Macacawitz in Virginia, where some folks like 'em that crazy and that extreme). Jane Hamsher, John Amato, myself and several other Blue America folks got together and decided to help Lars out at the very end of the campaign.

Lars got some great deals and wound up blanketing the counties in Northern Virginia near DC. The counting and recounting went on for days and in the end Webb won by a little over 6,000 votes. His margin of victory: the counties where Lars ran the ads. The effect: the Democrats won control of the Senate, something few expected. For the past 2 years Lars' work has been nominated for Emmy and Polly awards. We have our fingers crossed that Friday will make 3 in a row.

I also have my fingers crossed that tonight Americans will not just listen to George Bush's evasive, defeatist State of the Union speech. After Bush is finished bumbling through whatever his writers have cooked up to try to resuscitate his disastrous poll numbers, that same Senator Jim Webb will deliver the Democratic version of the State of the Union. Bush may not have a real plan for Iraq (just, as Senator Webb calls it, "an adjustment") but Jim Webb, a former Secretary of the Navy, does have a plan-- and he'll be sharing it tonight.

If you're going to be out and can't watch Bush's bullshit tonight, here's an early copy for you to watch now. (Watch Pelosi's face and body language as he digs himself deeper and deeper into his quagmire ditch.) Do try to get back in time to watch Webb; it'll be worth it.




UPDATE: BUSH ISN'T WORTH MENTIONING; WEBB WAS COMPLETELY AWESOME

If you missed Webb's brilliant speech tonight, Crooks & Liars has it up already and you can watch it. You can also read it at his Born Fighting website

What were your favorite lines from the speech? I can't decide between two: "as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other" (an FDR quote). And "These Presidents (FDR and Eisenhower) 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."