Who's the Boor?

George Will feels compelled to weigh in on the Bush-Webb kerfuffle, and decides that Webb's "calculated rudeness" makes him a "boor." Here's how Will describes the episode:

Wednesday's 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 boy?" Webb replied, "I'd like to get them [sic] out of Iraq." When the president again asked "How's your boy?" Webb replied, "That's between me and my boy."

Interestingly, while linking to the original report, Will decides that a little selective editing is in order. Here's how the conversation really went:

"How's your boy?" Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.

"I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

"That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?"

"That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.

Boy, that remark by the President that Will edited out — "That's not what I asked you" — really changes the tone of the exchange, doesn't it? Webb clearly isn't winning a society prize for his skill at cocktail party smalltalk, but Bush sure does seem to go out of his way to verbally provoke the Senator-elect.

Note to Will: if you can't make your point about a conversation without misleading edits, there's probably not a real point to be made. And that snotty reading you provide of the first paragraph of Webb's op-ed piece? When you spend half of your valuable column-inches giving a school-marmish lecture about the proper use of the words "literally" and "infinitely," you're just being a bit of a boor yourself.