Jim Webb Threatens to 'Slug' President Bush

Newly elected Senator Jim Webb, D-Va., was so infuriated by a remark from President George W. Bush that the former Marine officer was tempted to punch the commander-in-chief.

The confrontation, disclosed in the influential Washington, D.C.-based publication The Hill, came shortly after the midterm elections at a private White House reception for newly elected lawmakers.

Webb, who defeated Republican Sen. George Allen in Virginia, ran a campaign critical of the administration’s Iraq policy, and has a son, a Marine lance corporal, serving in Iraq.

At the reception, Bush asked Webb how his son was doing.

Webb answered that he really wanted to see his son brought back home, a source close to Webb reported.

The Associated Press quoted Webb as saying, "I told him I'd like to get them out of Iraq."

"I didn’t ask you that, I asked how he’s doing,” Bush countered, according to the source.

Emily Heil wrote in The Hill: "Webb confessed that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief, reported the source, but of course didn’t.”

Webb’s spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd confirmed that "Jim did have a conversation with Bush at that dinner. Basically, he asked about Jim’s son; Jim expressed the fact that he wanted to have him home.”

Todd wouldn’t comment on Bush’s response.