Mike webb: sad, dry, drunk

I looked up from my newspaper and saw Mike Webb.

He was striding down the hallway wearing shades like a gangster, and he was not happy.   

Then I saw Jeff DeWolf, a local freelance photographer with his camera to his face pointing it at Webb in the crowded hallway.

Almost at the same time, Webb crossed behind his attorney, Mark Larranaga and lunged at DeWolf. As he struck Jeff in his face and shoulder with a one-two, Jeff stumbled back, with a woof and Larranaga, yelled, "Mike!" and pulled him on down the hall and into the courtroom.

The hallway was full of attorneys and clients, family members. They were startled by the disturbance and a few shouted out. DeWolf, shaken, yelled out, "Hey Mike!"

Webb's gained quite a bit of weight since I'd seen him last. He was wearing a dark, bulky, unseasonal jacket and his bushy 1970's mustache framed that frown. He and Larranaga were going to his omnibus hearing to turn in agreed-upon paperwork for his trial upcoming on July 12 at the King County Courthouse in E 847, where Judge Helen Halpert presides over a daily calendar of felony cases.

(Webb was charged with felony insurance fraud and fired from his longtime KIRO radio talk job after he was arrested in December on fraud charges. Police and prosecutors say he tried to claim damages from an accident he had with an uninsured driver on a Geico insurance policy he bought after the accident. He's pleading not guilty).

In the courtroom after the attack, Webb sat by himself on the end of a wooden bench visibly fuming as his attorney dealt with the court. I was so close I could smell his cologne.

Jeff DeWolf went down to security to report the attack, and police were called.

Their business finished, Webb and Larranaga left the court room, took the elevator to the lobby level and left through the tunnel leading the two blocks beneath the Courthouse and took an elevator to 5th Ave., thus avoiding the scene with DeWolf and the cops at the 3rd Street entrance.

This "Sean Penn & the paparazzi" act of Webb's was transrational. There's no reasonable justification for him to assault someone in a courthouse hallway- although he's got some nutty excuses on his website.

Mike Webb just went nuts, he saw red, he lost it. There was no thought process involved except deep in the dank interstices of his lizard brain. He struck out and damn the consequences.

Webb is disturbed, true, but he also vividly displays the characteristics and symptoms of what Alcoholic Anonymous calls a "dry drunk." He has said publicly he's had problems with alcohol or other substances. 

A dry drunk is the name for some fairly specific attitudes and behaviors typical around non-drinking or non-using, but untreated addiction. It's in vogue to accuse George W. Bush of being a dry drunk, but we probably can't get close enough to his personal life to really make that judgment. Mike Webb's symptoms, on the other hand, have been very publicly displayed in actions and statements that make the papers, and in his broadcasting on the intimate medium that is radio.

Webb broadcasts a live stream on his website nearly every night. He has guests over whom he gushes- chosen, no doubt because they agree with him. He takes no callers. It's a rambling 2 hours in which he posits and rants; makes jokes, laughs at them himself; slaughters his enemies and in general, explains himself. In the end, the topic is himself. There's no one to challenge him.

What a racket, eh? But unfortunately, it's not working out for him, as his irrational actions on Friday generously demonstrate.

Typical signs of a dry drunk are:
• acting self-important, either by “having all the answers,”  or playing “poor me.”
• making harsh judgments of oneself and others.
• being impatient or pursuing whims.
• blaming others for shortcomings one suspects in oneself.
• being dishonest, usually beginning with little things.
• impulsive behavior which ignores what’s best for oneself and others.
• inability to make decisions.
• mood swings, trouble with expressing emotions, feeling unsatisfied.
• detachment, self-absorption, boredom, distraction or disorganization.
• nostalgia for the drinking life.
• fantasizing, daydreaming and wishful thinking or euphoria.
• less participation in a 12-step program or dropping out altogether.

Sound like anyone you know?

Read everything you'll ever wanna know about Mike Webb:

BREAKING: KIRO TALK HOST MIKE WEBB CHARGED WITH INSURANCE FRAUD
A tangled webb: the seattle police's case against mike webb 
Hackers? police conspiracy? yeah, that's it...
Mike webb's attorney no stranger to "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation."
Mike webb, 1995-2005 R.I.P.
Mike webb speaks
Ten easy things mike webb can do to keep from going postal

Comments

[joanie]

You didn't actually follow him all the way out of the building to the fifth ave exit . . . did you? Scary.

Interesting account, Michael. I wonder how Mike is paying for all this? Do you suppose he still has that Lexus? I'll bet he's sorry he ever pulled this stunt. Better to have taken a simple ticket for no insurance. Also, I wonder if he has any support from family or even friends? Well, you know what they say about pride . . .

[RobP]

Maybe Webb will succeed Pat O'Day as the new voice for Schick Schadel Hospital!

You know...give us 10 days, we'll give you back your life!"

[Mike Barer]

I think the unfortunate part of this is that the Conservatives focus on Webb as a representative of a Liberal.

[Stephen Schwartz]

All this may be true, but Webb's web site gives a very different story which, contrary to Michael's claij, does not sound crazy.

This sort of snickering is really no better form the left than the right.

[chunkstyle]

Of course Webb gives a different account! The difference being is that he has been so prone to overblown hyperbole and rabid paranoia, that he is hard to take at face value. He is always the victim, always everyone else out to get him, etc.

Thus, although Mr. Hood's accounts may not be 100% accurate, they are much more reliable than Webb's delusional version.

[gusto and poor]

Jim Walker AKA "orbusmax" AKA Drudge wannabee says the media would be all over this story if it involved a right-wing talk-show host. Maybe so...however, since Webb has little visibility in the media, especially since he got fired from KIRO, it wouldn't be much of a story. Now if Carlson did it, it would be newsworthy....Developing...

[sclub]

Don't agree gusto. Webb's well known in Seattle. It's a story.

[gusto and poor]

I disagree, schlub. Who listens to AM radio? Old white folk and you people is crazy.

[joanie]

Don't agree sclub. Unless you're into tak radio, Webb isn't that well known. And considering his ratings, even in talk radio he's not that well know.

[Stephen Schwartz]

Ratings??

He si not on the radio now. He has been replaced by Drek and Dreadful.

[sclub]

Anybody attacking a news photog in the courthouse is a story. A known personality is better.

[stodge charger]

Penis Pills Limbaugh is a bigger story here...

[jb]

[quote]Maybe Webb will succeed Pat O'Day as the new voice for Schick Schadel Hospital![/quote]

I really doubt that.

Pat is a product of that hospital's success. He is also one of their owners and is on their board of directors. He also has family that works there.

Apples & oranges.

[baba booey]

Anybody attacking a news photog in the courthouse is a story. A known personality is better.

Posted by: sclub | July 01, 2006 at 05:53 PM
--------
Are you dense, schlub? You say Webb's attack is a "big story" yet I saw no mention of it on the local Seattle news, nor did I read about it in the Seattle Times or the P-I. What exactly is your definition of a "big story"? Mine would be a news event that is at least mentioned on a local news broadcast or in a newspaper article.

[Tommy008]

Webb tries to be a joker about his violent attack on his webssite- the punk claims that an "elderly runaway" photographer assaulted him, and then takes another cheap shot at Michael Hood, who is clearly a threat to him. Of course I don't believe Webb's version of the story- who would?

[rosco]

Was he wearing Hai Karate cologne?

[GR]

"Interesting account, Michael. I wonder how Mike is paying for all this? Do you suppose he still has that Lexus?"

http://www.puyallupnissan.com/ is sponsoring his webcast along with other Korum dealers. I wonder if they even know who they are sponsoring?

[Tommy008]

How long can the trial be? Will it even go beyond a day? The prosecutor will show the documents from Geico with insurance policies that are one number behind and one number ahead of Mike's both dated a day after the accident, and then Mike Webb will go on the stand and say that evildoers took remote control of his computer for a month.BWhhahahhooohhooooohaah And maybe he'll throw in a "the dog ate my homework" for effect.

[Stephen Schwartz]

Sighhhhhhh....

This thread reads like the wailing of neutered mail cats on the fence. Webb may be all yuse guys say but he is a lot mor einteresting on the radion than most of us.

Do hear a faint murmur of jealousy?

Or has he insulted everyone here with his gay-o-meter? Whay in hell did that ever insult anyone???

[Harvey Fierstein]

Mr. Schwartz, you're my kind of people, honey!

[mac]

Mr. Schwartz, neutered cats sleep at night, not caterwall on the fence...I'd challenge your assertion that Webb had anything much to say on the radio. He was a rambler, and always had a narrow scope- mostly it was about how terrible Bush is. He's right, but it got to be so boring night after night as he went on and on about the same issues using the same words. The gay-o-meter? Not insulting, but predictable and not very funny, especially since he ran it over and over again, against anyone he didn't like. My wife and I found KGO years before Mike went down and never came back. His weird, pissed-off pathology, arrogance and denial accelerated his downfall. I'm sorry, but it is fascinating.

[sparky]

Holy crap, I leave town for a couple of days and all hell breaks loose.

Mr Webb needs serious medical intervention regardless of the outcome of his trial.

I think I will go back to the Tri-cities and drink more wine....

[Stephen Schwartz]

Gee mac ..

you been listening to styble? Or it stybling to KIRO?

As for neutered cats .. you don't live in my neighborhood, but maybe here on cap hill the cats are gay.

[artistdogboy]

Is there a police report filed on the
alleged assualt of the photog by Webb?

Schick Schadel uses aversion therapy.
They make you puke a lot when you injest alcohol.

They also read your mind and then they use an electric cattle prod on you like your Pavlog's dog everytime you have dirty thoughts about a cocktail waitress.

10 days of puking your guts out and a couple of dry heaves later and your good as new. Like it never happened. As Pat O'Day says no bothersome meetings or grueling self examination needed. I wonder if they have aversion therapy for pesky photographers. Maybe the photographer puke on you till you are averted from wanting to kick their ass.

Let's face it, if Webb is a alcoholic, and only he really knows if he is onr not, it sounds like he's so dry he's a fire hazard.

[Simpson]

The comment by Stephen Schwartz above is close to my own feelings. These breathless reports about every Webb-related activity, along with the perfunctory references to either his sexual orientation or his criminal case [i]in its entirety[/i] over and over (and now his weight and cologne!) says more about blatherwatch than anything else.

Will you ever get over that phone call you made to his show way back when?

[sparky]

why would we be jealous of Mike Webb?

[gusto and poor]

Webb can do no wrong in my book as long as he continues to attack the gutless Republican scum.

[chris]

Indeed, the forces of tyranny that make up the GOP should be our sole objective to eliminate.

[joanie]

I was a regular listener to Webb and saw all his warts along with his passion. I needed good liberal passion and venom and he supplied that. So, I listened.

This is a radio blog and I expect Michael to notice and report every little scandolous radio item out there. I hope he does anyway!

[Tommy008]

I don't give a crap if Mike is gay. You "Seattle's Pink Mafia" types have to get over yourselves and you're feeling that anyone who's gay in this town is sancrosanct and shouldn't be criticized. He's a creep, and he deserved the award I gave him. By the way when I use the term "punk" for Webb, I'm not using it the way it's used in the penetentiary, which has a sexual orientation connotation. I'm using it in the old-fashioned sense of a substandard, crappy, unadmirable individual. .

[umo]

Mike Webb was the victim of a junk email fake Geico insurance scam. That is his story and he is sticking to it.

[Andrew Yu-Jen Wang]

Bush Still Hated by Everyone, Forever

For all the comparison’s he would like to make about himself and Harry Truman (who left the White House with a high disapproval rating but history later proved him to be jawesome), George Bush has managed to outshine his predecessors in at least one respect: he’s beaten every other president in history with how much he’s hated.

“No other President’s disapproval rating has gone higher than 70 percent,” said CNN pollster Keating Holland. “Bush has managed to do that three times so far this year.” Including his current highest-ever rating of 76%.

Retrieved November 18, 2008, from http://www.jossip.com/bush-still-hated-by-everyone-forever-20081111/

“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” –Kanye West (African-American rapper, record producer, and singer).

Maybe if George W. Bush changed and learned to like and care about black people, the American people would not hate him so much and forever. In addition, maybe if Bush constructively aspired to overcome his hatred of black people, it would be beneficial in relieving some of the psychological strain and inner turmoil within—which would, if anything, risk exacerbating his situation as a dry drunk if not dealt with.

Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993