Posted on 10/26/2006 11:52:41 PM PDT by freespirited
James Webb will tell you that he is first a writer, with several best-selling novels to his name. He is also the descendant of brave-hearted Scots-Irish who stood up to English kings. He is a husband and father of four...But above all, Webb is still in his heart a combat Marine...
Now, Webb ... has become a face of the movement against the Iraq war. The man who admired Ronald Reagan and served his administration as a cocky secretary of the Navy is one of the Democrats' best hopes to wrest control of the Senate from the GOP as he challenges incumbent George Allen.
That this warrior rails against the war is only one of the contradictions in Webb's life, just a hint of the complexities and ironies that make him an uneasy candidate... Even his good friends question whether he has the temperament to serve in Congress...
His friends also wonder whether it was Webb's temperament that led at least partially to his writing a magazine article in 1979 about women in combat that some female midshipmen say encouraged hostility and sexual harassment.
The inflammatory article has become one of the turning points of the campaign and a key reason why Webb is not enjoying the success among female voters that other Virginia Democrats have, according to a recent Washington Post poll.
The article still resonates. "Now you've got a bona fide war hero -- and he just lined up every woman there and publicly executed us," said retired Navy Cmdr. Kathleen Murray, a 1984 Annapolis graduate.
Paul E. Roush, a retired Marine colonel, wrote in a 1997 naval journal that Webb's article was "the single greatest purveyor of degradation and humiliation on the basis of one's gender that academy women have had to endure."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Thanks, but I’m too honest to be a politician.
No, no, no, no, no...
No, no, no, no, no...
Your country NEEDS you ..... again! ;*)
No problem. There are plenty of experienced staff in DC who can find a way around that!
"Thanks, but I’m too honest to be a politician"
... and that's the rub!
I fear that is one draft I would have to dodge.
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