Posted on 04/04/2006 8:01:36 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Sens. George Allen (Va.) and John McCain (Ariz.) could square off for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination — if an old McCain friend doesn’t get to Allen first.
Former Navy Secretary James Webb, one of McCain’s “oldest friends,” is vying for the Democratic nomination to take on Allen in his reelection bid this November. Although Webb must first get past lobbyist Harris Miller in the Democratic primary, political analysts say his candidacy could end up hampering Allen’s presidential aspirations and bolstering McCain’s.
“Party activists expect a presidential contender to have strong home support, and if Webb (or Miller) could even come close to Allen in 2006, the results would raise questions about Allen’s own base,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “Indirectly, any weakening of Allen would help McCain, and some other GOP presidential candidates.”
Despite the longtime friendship between McCain and Webb, a former Republican, the Arizona senator said he is backing Allen. Even so, in an interview outside the Senate chamber last week, McCain called Webb “a war hero” and “a great patriot.”
Last year, McCain went even further. “Jim Webb is one of my oldest friends,” McCain said in a March 2005 speech to the American Ireland Fund’s 13th National Gala, according to a transcript posted on his Senate website. Webb, who is of Irish ancestry, had just introduced McCain, who was receiving an award.
The two were among the subjects profiled in Robert Timberg’s 1995 book The Nightingale’s Song, tracing the careers of five Naval Academy graduates and Vietnam veterans. Iran-Contra scandal figures Oliver North, John Poindexter and Bud McFarlane were the others.
Besides McCain, Webb has at least one more fan among defense-minded Senate Republicans. Allen’s home-state GOP colleague, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman and former Navy Secretary John Warner, tried to recruit Webb to run in a 1994 Virginia Senate primary against eventual Republican nominee Oliver North.
“He has the potential of being a serious and formidable candidate,” Warner said in a recent interview.
Warner, calling himself a great admirer of Webb’s military career, said he is loyal to Allen but will not disparage Webb during the campaign. Perhaps that is because Warner also feels some loyalty to Webb, who once served on Warner’s Navy secretary staff.
In a Senate floor speech about the location of an Air Force memorial in 1997, Warner called Webb “a very solid, fair-minded, and … objective person.”
McCain may not slap a Webb “Born Fighting” campaign bumper sticker on his car — “I’m supporting Senator Allen’s reelection,” he said — but he did offer laudatory words on the dust jacket of Webb’s book of the same name.
“James Webb, a legendary fighting man, tells a remarkable story — how the Scots-Irish and their fighting faith in America shaped the great nation we are today. His profound insights deepen our understanding not only of this unique people, but also of America’s past and present,” McCain wrote.
Dick Wadhams, a veteran Republican campaign operative who helped oust former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) in 2004 and will leave his job as Allen’s Senate chief of staff to run his reelection campaign next week, said Allen has a good relationship with McCain and expects “nothing but support” from him.
The political background of the players is even stranger: Webb endorsed Allen in his successful bid to unseat then-Sen. Chuck Robb (D-Va.) in 2000 after endorsing Robb over North in 1994.
Because he was a Republican, questions about his loyalty to Democrats could hinder Webb as he seeks his new party’s nomination.
“I’m like I think a large number of people in this country, who … during the Vietnam War became alienated from the Democratic Party, basically feeling like they weren’t welcomed there, and went to the Republicans on national security issues but never were really comfortable on the social issues over there,” Webb told Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball” last month.
More recently, he called his 2000 endorsement of Allen “a mistake,” citing Allen’s subsequent support for the Iraq invasion, according to the Hampton Roads Daily Press.
It is an issue on which McCain and Webb differ sharply.
“Jim has different views on how things stand right now in terms of the country and the direction of the country, especially when it comes to defense and foreign-policy matters,” said Webb spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd. “Mr. McCain supports the president, and Jim does not.”
Wadhams predicted that there would be stark differences between Allen and whichever candidate the Democrats nominate, particularly in regards to the Iraq war, on which Allen and McCain agree.
Still, some observers believe Webb’s service record — he won the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts — might make him an attractive alternative in military-heavy Virginia.
“In a lot of ways, Webb is a nightmare for George Allen,” Sabato said. “Allen is used to running against traditional Democrats who are vulnerable on a wide range of defense, crime, and cultural issues. Webb isn’t very vulnerable, and on defense he has a big edge on Allen, who never served in the military.”
Allen, a former Virginia governor, won more than 52 percent of the vote when he bested Robb in 2000.
Though a recent Zogby poll placed Webb about seven points behind Allen in a head-to-head match-up, it is difficult to tell how much traction Webb will get with the Democratic faithful. The June 13 primary is still more than two months away.
What also remain unclear are the depth and texture of the McCain-Webb friendship.
In 1995, Timberg wrote of McCain, North, Poindexter and McFarlane: “None could be called Webb’s friend because he bestowed that mantle warily, and only after a long testing period. But they were more than passing acquaintances.”
“He and McCain have a cordial relationship, but he wouldn’t characterize them as buddies or close friends,” Todd said.
Still, she said, Webb is “highly respectful of the service that [McCain] has shown his country” and “thinks he is a good man and a good senator.”
Whatever the relationship, Sabato and others discounted any suggestion that one of the reasons Webb entered the race was to boost McCain’s presidential election chances.
“No one runs for the Senate on such a basis,” Sabato said. “McCain may be helped as a result of Webb’s challenge to Allen, but it is not the motive behind Webb’s challenge.”
Wadhams said that it is too early to presume Webb will make it to the November ballot and that his candidacy does not present an additional obstacle to Allen.
“We expected nothing other than a competitive Senate race in 2006,” he said.
Good. Then he should appear at a fundraiser with Allen. No hugging allowed though! ;-)
later read
everything seems to be falling into place for the McCainiacs
Yea I've been wondering about that. It seems like McCain is being verrrrrrrry careful this time around. He's taking no chances - he wants the presidency real bad! But that aside he should help out his fellow Republicans no matter what.
Webb is going to have to take positions on issues. This is going to be interesting, because the primary voting democrat is a liberal; is Webb?
>This is going to be interesting, because the primary voting democrat is a liberal; is Webb?<
Don't think for one moment the VA democrat party leaders aren't playing chess, here. They are looking to run Mark Warner for President, and they are betting that he's a shoe-in against McPain. They'll get the party faithful marshalled into place. Mark (warner) my word.
"Former Navy Secretary James Webb"
IIRC, this is the guy on whose watch the Kerry discharge matter transpired, and he refused to tell what he knew during 2004.......incidentally, McCain's activities and statements as a POW were (at minimum) a topic of discussion at a time when Webbs position(s) in govt were relevant also.
http://www.webbforsenate.com/biography/index.php
I am from Northern Virginia and I will not vote for a Dem or McCain. James Webb is an interesting man but I don't trust anyone who torpedoes a conservative. McCain is insane.
They've been annoying here on free republic lately, they are the largest part of the "Hillary can't be beat, we need McCain" crowd.
And the McCainiacs are speaking of Hillary like she has supernatural powers of mind control.
McCain knows he won't surivive the primary without Hillary being built up to mythological status and with anybody running to the right of him.
I doubt he will do anything to help Allen.
Varies from issue to issue, but he is a bit out there.
Him and Oliver North have one hell of a nasty rivalry going back decades, as do some other conservatives, but some libs have issues with him too.
However, its pretty clear he has changed more then a bit over the years and has been drifting left for some time now.
*** ping ***
Sen. Allen ping.
I read just last week how the Dems' attempts at getting Iraqi veterans to run in races was not faring well at all.
Harris Miller?
Never heard of him. How can he beat James Webb 2 months from now?
Maybe we can Freep the demonratz' primary?
Abortion? Gays in the military? Flag Amendment? Does he still believe that Women don't belong in the service academies? Immigration? Chain immigration? Homosexual (polygamous/polyamorous) marriage? If he has shifted views on so many of these things you need to wonder what he was doing in the Reagan Administration to begin with.
Since when has McCain helped out repubs - McCain helps himself - and that's why I don't like him.
And .. when I saw McCain's wife wearing a "Hillary" pin - that did it for me.
Bill Kristol goes party-building
By W. James Antle III
web posted March 13, 2000
From their perch at The Weekly Standard, William Kristol and David Brooks embraced John McCain and claimed that he was engaged in a process of Schumpterian "creative destruction" that would ultimately revive the GOP's electoral fortunes. They went on to ascribe all sorts of unlikely virtues to the senator and tut-tut conservatives short-sighted enough to oppose him.
Now that it is clear that the only creative destruction that has taken place within the Republican presidential race was of McCain's candidacy, it might be time to revisit Kristol's and Brooks' thesis. Their political strategy in essence was this: Jettison the boorish white Southerners -- a Weekly Standard bete noire held responsible for much of the GOP's troubles within its pages -- and their Christian right friends, as well as other elements of the Republican coalition easily caricatured by the Democrats. Replace them with a party that chablis-sipping sophisticates from the Northeast who dress like Tucker Carlson would be more comfortable with. Sprinkle generous amounts of happy talk about reform. Voila! A new majority is born.
Do they speak English?
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