George Will is Full of S#@%!

The Bossman has been on hiatus for a little while, spending some time down in his old stomping ground -- Los Angeles. Actually, I didn't really do much stomping down there then, but I'm trying to make up for it now. I'll fill you in on the trip shortly.

But first, I would like to share this ridiculous piece written by right-wing prig and Washington Post columnist George Will. Will recounts an exchange between President Bush and Virginia Senator-elect Jim Webb, but fiddles with the wording to make his point that Webb was intentionally and inexplicably rude to the President, which apparently is a no-no within the mannerly confines of the Beltway.

Some have responded that messing with direct quotes and omitting key phrases is a journalism school 101 no-no. And though it's often done to correct poor grammar or to convey the actual intent of the speaker using fewer words, Will clearly crossed a line through his omissions, as TPM Cafe points out.

Then, with no sense of the irony, he gets all college-English-professor on Webb, parsing the language of an excerpt of his writing to prove that, though once a practiced speaker, Webb is now careless and sometimes even rude. Shocking to be sure -- even if Will couldn't even approach convincing with his argument. Rather, he expects us to share his outrage that Webb might want to point out widening class divisions with some slight rhetorical flourish. And he wants us to censure the Senator for the high crime of misusing the word 'literally'.

They say those who can't do teach. More accurately here, those who can't do -- or teach -- become Washington Post columnists.