Webb could be very interesting in the Senate. He's got a long and very conservative track record, except for his position on Iraq, as I understand it. Abortion, guns, etc.
Any Virginians that can confirm.
Otherwise he will a Lincoln Chaffe & Chuck Hagel of the Dem party
It wouldn't surprise me for him to get sucked into the D.C. social circle,
only to fall in line with the rest of the libtards
Webb is not a conservative, if you actually look at his views. Yes, he's 100% hard line on the second amendment, but he's apparently a racist, anti-semite, neo isolationist anti-globalist and closet socialist all rolled into one.
Here's an Andrew Sullivan column ( Virginia's Jim Webb Joins Strange Bedfellows: Andrew Ferguson (Bloomberg - Nov 14, 2006)) I linked to yesterday in the preview thread. This excerpt is an "uh oh" for me:
Webb, on the other hand, is better described as a Buchanan Democrat -- as in Pat Buchanan. Webb's brand of populism is hostile to free trade, antagonistic to corporate America, suspicious of the market and horrified by the effects of globalization, which has showered rewards on the elites while leaving behind the people who, as a populist, he means to represent.
And then there's this from another article ( Jim Webb: 'Pretty Good Feel' for Senate Work (NewsMax.com, FL - Nov 14, 2006)) about Webb's first meeting with Dingy Harry and other senators:
In a brief conversation with reporters, Reid picked up on one of Webb's top campaign issues - the need for a negotiated settlement to the Iraq war that includes diplomacy with nations on less-than-friendly terms with the United States, such as Iran and Syria.
Reid specifically mentioned Syria and Egypt in reaching a diplomatic solution.
"It's their problem more than it's our problem," Reid said.
Yep, that's the ticket. Let's trust the Iranians, Syrians and Egyptians. Uh huh. Oh, Israel? Better load the nukes onto those F16s quick, fellas. You're lives are about to be bargained away by the goyim... again.
And this piece (Jim Webb's War (New York Sun, NY - Nov 13, 2006)) gives a good outline of Webb's race based view of the world as described in his latest nonfiction book Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America:
Near the end of "Born Fighting," Mr. Webb provides a clue of where his intentions for the Scots-Irish might lie. "And thus the final question in this age of diversity and political correctness is whether they can learn to play the modern game of group politics. For if they do, they hold the future direction of America in their collective hands. "The era of Democratic dominance on Capitol Hill was forged on an alliance between Southern conservatives and Northern urban ethnics. A good measure of how badly the Democrats want to create a new and long-lasting national majority — and not just for the most recent election — will be the extent to which they embrace Mr. Webb's Scots-Irish as another item on the buffet of identity politics.
In this book he also apparently praises Nathan Bedford Forrest's military prowess while ignoring the Fort Pillow massacre or good ol' Nathan's founding of the KKK. He explicitly defends the Stars and Bars Confederate battle flag and those who fly it, but even given that his campaign had the chutzpah to attack Allen for possibly having Confederate sympathies. The junior senator from Virginia will apparently find common cause with the senior senator from West Virginia, sheets Byrd.
But the thing about Webb that truly scares me is what he considers his number one mission, correcting the inequality of income distribution. Yep. He wants to take from the "rich" (apparently anyone who owns stock) and give to the poor so that we're all happy comrades.(Class Struggle (Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Nov 15, 2006)) . One astonishing charge Mr. Webb levels to get our collectivist blood boiling is
"(t)he top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes."
He conveniently leaves out the part where the top 1% pay 29% of income taxes. Sounds like their taxes need to come down just a tad to me. But not according to Jim Webb.
It sounds like he thinks it's time to eat the rich, not just soak them.
Jim Webb needs lots of watching. He could be "interesting," as you say, or he could be amusing in a clownish sort of way. Or he could be the most dangerous office holder in a generation. Think Huey Long. If you don't know who Huey Long is read the novel based on his life, All the Kings Men, or watch the movie.. Don't bother with the new Sean Penn version but go straight to the 1949 version with Broderick Crawford. Long was the same kind of demagogue that Hitler and Stalin were. Could Webb represent the return of that sort of "dear leader" to our shores?