[meandog]

I am sorry I have met Webb & have had the displeasure of having to work with him during those Reagan years. Webb is fundamentally a jack-ass ! He has a chip on his shoulder a mile high. I was picked to work with him on a DOD project back in those RR years even though I was quite young and new to the DOD world. It was felt since I come from the red-neck Appalachian world that Webb is so proud of, even though a mere youth (Then!) perhaps I could communicate with him !(I couldn’t !) He tolerates NO disagreement even when the matter at hand is something that he has no education, training or experience in. In fact he acts if his ignorance of a subject endows himself with a special insight! He was a flop as a Navy Sec mainly because he couldn’t & wouldn’t work with anyone. (So it wasn’t just me!) We are seeing similar displays of his childish petulance here in the Senate as our Va senator. Of course since its so hard to actually measure success in a legislative job, Webb will probably be there forever. All a Senator has to do to be judged "successful" is posture & draw attention to himself, skills Webb has in abundance.

I don't still know a whole lot about him (I did meet him during the campaign) but I do know that he put his a$$ on the line once for his country, something his opponent in the last Va. Senate race didn't do...his son also is currently a Marine.
If someone such as former CJCS Peter Pace were to run against him, I'd vote for him. However, it seems that the Republican party in Virginia always manages to pick milquetoast candidates (Gilmore, Allen) then wonder why they end up getting beat.

[Reily]

You know there are a whole of decent conservatives who were never in the military. Having military service in ones background does not give one permanent pass for all other aspects of life! In regard to your comment about Webb putting his ass on the line. My father a former WW II marine put it best when I made a similar comment. Quoting my Dad, “Some of the best Marines I ever knew were some of the worst people & some of the best people I ever knew were terrible Marines and so you won’t think there is a trend, there were fantastic people were also good Marines!”. Clearly his point was, look at the whole person and look at what he does with his behavior and his life during and after service. (Interestingly enough one of the “Band-of Brothers” makes a similar in an interview during the series.) To me, my personal snapshot of Webb is one data point and could be wrong, but given Webb’s subsequent public behavior since then, I think not. After he left the Reagan administration he continued to make criticisms about DOD issues he didn’t like. Some of his criticisms had some justification, but they were always said in a spirit of arrogant pettiness that showed me the man I met was still the same guy. Look at the nasty campaign he ran against his democrat opponent complete with campaign cartoons that highlighted in vile manner his opponent’s Jewish background. Do you really believe that Allen’s Jewish background being outed in the manner that it was, was an accident? Then look at his boorish behavior in the White House and his splendid display of leadership when his aide got caught with the pistol. All in all this tells me he is the same jerk that I meet back in the RR years. I view Webb’s suddent political epiphany as more an example of his arrogance and shameless opportunism then anything to do with principles! Unfortunately a lot of Virginians fell for it. (Webb as a “leader” reminds me of Braxton Bragg!) Allen was actually a pretty good governor of Va and I thought of him as a decent Senator also. (I will grant you Gilmore was pretty average.) I really don’t understand your “milquetoast” comment! All I require from my candidates are that they try to govern and legislate to conservative principles. I don’t require them to entertain me!