Posted on 11/19/2016 12:28:06 AM PST by Sontagged
Jim Webb is, at least in a nominal sense, a Democrat. Last year, he briefly pursued the Democratic nomination for president, a run best remembered for his joke about killing the Vietnamese soldier who threw a grenade at him.
Now Webb is singing Donald Trump’s praises, and may have his eye on a cabinet job. “I would like to salute Donald Trump for his tenacity and for the uniqueness of his campaign,” Webb during a speech to a hundred or so attendees at a foreign policy symposium in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
To hear Webb tell it, in fact, he tried to do what Trump did. “It took an outsider, whatever his wealth and lack of government experience, to tell the truth,” Webb said, before explaining that his own efforts in this regard were tripped up by his lack of wealth and an intransigent Democratic elite.
Conservative writer Bill Kauffmann floated Webb’s name as a possible cabinet pick in his introduction of the former Virginia senator. Later on, a questioner mentioned an “incredible rumor going around” that Webb might be offered secretary of defense, and asked whether he would accept the role. Webb did not answer the question.
It all had the look and feel of a trial balloon being launched. Here was Webb, with his sterling resume, laying out a vision of America’s vision in the world that roughly hewed with what Trump said on the campaign trail: Putting America first, minding our own business, avoiding foreign entanglements. And of course he had nothing but nice things to say about the president-elect, even though he declined to say whom he’d voted for.
He also spoke quite a bit about how Democrats left working class whites behind: “It made white working people their most convenient whipping posts, particularly white males.”
It was a message likely to resonate with the audience. The American Conservative, a right-wing publication with a dovish, populist bent, had put the symposium together. Founded in 2002 as a home for anti-war conservatives, it can in some sense be credited for providing the intellectual architecture of what we now think of as Trumpism.
Whether any of that architecture still interests Trump is another matter. Regardless, Webb’s resume is immaculate. He’s a graduate of Annapolis and of Georgetown Law. He’s a highly decorated war hero. He’s already been an assistant secretary of Defense, secretary of the Navy, and a U.S. Senator.
And he’s also an acclaimed author of ten books, including “Born Fighting,” his 2004 history of the Scotch-Irish people that was the “Hillbilly Elegy” of its time.
That resume didn’t serve him in his no-hope bid for the Democratic nomination last year. But it would likely make a Senate confirmation vote a breeze, and that fact alone could make a Webb nod tempting to Trump’s White House team.
John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani, two floated names for Trump’s secretary of State, could easily be stuck in confirmation hearings for months. (Sen. Rand Paul is already saying he’ll do anything possible to stop Bolton.)
Meanwhile, Steve Bannon’s elevation to White House strategist has already produced tremendous blowback. Possible Defense pick Gen. Michael Flynn could face trouble explaining some of his foreign ties. And getting an immigration hardliner like Kris Kobach or Jeff Sessions to a major post could be a hard-fought battle as well.
Not so with Webb, a known quantity that would likely appease both Trump fans and some detractors within Washington officialdom. It would also give Trump a Democrat in his cabinet. Cross-party moves like that tend to be attractive to presidents, and may be particularly so to an off-and-on Democrat like Trump.
It would also reassure supporters and critics alike that Trump has no intention of getting the U.S. into a war. Webb, unlike Trump, was an early and outspoken critic of the Iraq War, a position that launched his career in electoral politics. His non-interventionist bona fides are rock solid.
Webb’s big idea is that we need a “clear statement of national security interests.” He’s critical of NATO’s expansion to Russia’s borders, and said he feels humanitarian military adventures are deeply unwise. But first and foremost, we need a strategy that’s easily understood by enemies, allies, and the American people alike.
“Tell me what our national interest is, how we are going to defend it, how we will know we have accomplished our mission -- and if you can do that, you have a strategy,” he said. And in Webb’s version of that strategy, generally speaking, we’d be preoccupied to containing Chinese influence in Asia in lieu of wars of choice like the Libya intervention.
Regardless of what anyone makes of Webb’s pronouncements, he has the authority to make them, and could provide a degree of nuance to Trump’s foreign policy impulses. Whether the president-elect has any interest in that is another matter, but on the merits, a top job for Jim Webb would make a fair bit of sense.
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“It is going to be Mad Dog Mattis.”
Got my vote. That will surely make some heads explode.
thanks for cutting thru the BS from
See BS , a DNC pr group .
The US media is dead and buried.
Great example of Webb’s PR firm cooked up spin and SeeBS packages it as news.
I did not comment on his combat record.
I am talking about his record as an incompetent Secretary of the Navy who President Reagan wisely fired. I am talking about his record as a lying Democrat politician.
And no I wasn't being harsh. I barely scratched the surface.
I am sick and tired of people like John Kerry and Jim Webb using their prior military experience to justify their dishonest behavior.
No, typical self-promoting Rat. How about Allen West, who has proven himself as the real deal!
In answer to the question, I hope a gadfly like Webb is not offered any position in the Trump administration. He’s been a political hanger-on his entire career, blowing with whatever winds seemed ascendant at any given moment. He’s a mediocre individual, always neither fish nor fowl — a pretender, never genuine. Reading the article, what comes across most strongly is that Webb’s own supporters are floating this rumor in hopes Webb catches the President-elect’s notice.
It can't be. Not till 2020 at least.
His first book, “Fields of Fire” is one of the best, if not the best personal narrative of the Viet Nam combat experience. His personal life has been a little sketchy but he has colored within the lines. I did not know (and still not sure) he was fired by Reagan. My understanding is that he was a popular Secretary of Navy, a responsive Senator and has a good record of public service. But others more knowledgeable of his background may have more to say. I would comment that if their criticism is nothing more than “no way” or “hell no” etc. that these exclamations be backed up with substantive evidence of Webb’s unfitness for public office in a Republican administration.
I love Allen West but he apparently came out against Trump.
Interesting. All I know is I did dream about this guy, and as the article states, he’d have no problem being confirmed.
I also like the fact he’s a writer. But you have a great point.....
Oh this is the guy who wrote a novel which includes a ‘culturally accura’ depiction of a grown man putting a little boy’s genitals in his mouth .
No, no more of this filth.
Wake the Heck up!
The media is toying and Rush explained all this on Friday.
Jim Webb, the wife beater?
Then why did he become a dem? Side with the dems?
These are the same Democrats (Webb included) that helped ObamaCare over the finish line. I wouldn’t put them in any major decision making post if for no other reason then they can’t make sound judgment-worst case they’re political hacks who wish to infiltrate the administration. Still, a ambassadorship to Argentina wouldn’t hurt.
I’m a girl; I did have a dream about Webb (and Trump) and I love Steve Bannon; he was the first Palinista I ever met in the flesh many years ago now. We all should be praying for him. And Bachmann is a GOPe troll put in office by Rove, research it yourself.
I’d like to know more about the Reagan firing of Webb considering it was HW running all the shady things at that time with North etc.
I’m wondering if Webb really had a Bush problem in the Reagan White House, considering his “I wanted to slug him” remarks about W in ‘06 regarding his son in Iraq.
I don’t think it’s fake news because Citizens4Trump’s Jack Posobiec is talking about Webb for last 24 hours.
He served as Navy Secretary years ago under a Democrat (Clinton?), would be good to look at that record with respect to "don't ask don't tell."
Vitally important to know would be his position on Obama's "transgendering" our armed forces. If Webb turns out to be a "social liberal" and willing to keep that in place, fuhgeddaboutit.
I think Webb is married to a Vietnamese woman and this is some southeast asian ritual described in his book.
I don’t listen to Rush, or Levin for the same reason.
You can read some of the other accounts above posted by others, but as a Vet, I do remember that Webb used his association with the Reagan administration only telling his good accounts and not that Reagan fired him. Did Bush Sr. have anything to do with it, no because it was Webb’s own actions that led to his dismissal. The subsequent campaigns only reinforced his deceitfulness.
Thanks, his book does sound interesting.
He certainly is a wild card. I would really like to know if there was some bad blood between the Webb and the Bushes, and if I were Trump, I would question him extensively on this topic.
If he isn’t a Republican conservative the answer is no.
It sounds as if you’re a moderate.
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