O TEMPORA! O MORES!

O TEMPORA! O MORES! What is the world coming to? Much has said about the exchange between Virginia’s new Senator Webb and President Bush. Bush asked Webb at a White House reception about Webb’s son and was rebuffed by Webb (to emphasize his disagreement on Iraq). I am shocked by what happened. Not because the conversation as reported is innocuous, the kind of thing that people ask each other at weddings and funerals when they are catching up with acquaintances. But because Virginians as a group are the most courteous people I have ever met, and this is a Virginian being discourteous. Washington has traditionally been known for polite relationships across party lines (think Reagan and Tip O’Neill). The staff writer for the Washington Post, the hometown newspaper for the federal government, characterizes the event as “Webb’s refusal to play the gentlemanly political games so common in Washington.” If polite conversation about family is a “gentlemanly political game,” we have gone far down the road toward polarization. On the other hand, the interchange is still news so there is hope that politeness is still a norm.