Webb To Give Dems' Response To Bush Speech

Freshman Sen. Jim Webb will deliver the Democrats' response next Tuesday to President Bush's State of the Union address.

The selection was made Tuesday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Webb spokeswoman Jessica Smith said.

Webb's upset victory over Republican Sen. George Allen was the decisive race in giving the Democrats control of Congress in last year's midterm elections.

Webb will speak for about five minutes shortly after Bush's address to a joint session of Congress on Jan. 23.

It will be the second year in a row that a Virginia Democrat has been selected to rebut the president's annual address to Congress. Last year, newly elected Gov. Timothy M. Kaine delivered the response live from the Executive Mansion in Richmond.

Bush's speech comes as the unpopular president struggles to rally public support behind his decision to boost U.S. troop strength in Iraq.

As a former Navy secretary to President Reagan and a decorated Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War, Webb was among the earliest and most vocal opponents of Bush's decision to invade Iraq.

He warned in a 2002 newspaper column, the year before the invasion, that such a move would destabilize the Middle East, strengthen Iran's hand and mire the United States for years in a deadly conflict similar to Vietnam.

Webb said it was a factor in his decision to leave the Republicans for the Democratic Party and run last year against Allen, a conservative former Virginia governor who was considered a strong contender the GOP presidential nomination in 2008.