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Calling Iraq "this quagmire," Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Jim Webb yesterday said President Bush would rather play politics than bring home American troops. Webb, who is opposing Republican Sen. George Allen, a Bush ally on Iraq, said in the Democratic response to the president's weekly radio address that it is not disloyal to the troops to criticize the war. "As the occupation of Iraq has continued to drag on, some of our most distinguished retired generals, as well as many members of Congress with strong loyalties to our military, have suggested different approaches for America to remove itself from this...

Va. Candidate Webb: GOP Can't Fix Iraq Jul 01 10:48 AM US/Eastern By BOB LEWIS Associated Press Writer RICHMOND, Va. Neither President Bush nor the Republican-led Congress can extract the United States from a bloody quagmire of their own making in Iraq, said a former Republican who is seeking a Senate seat in Virginia. Democrat Jim Webb, who was President Reagan's Navy secretary in 1987- 88, said he knows from his own past as one of the Vietnam War's most decorated Marines how to "bring the Iraq War to an early and honorable end." Webb bolted the GOP in 2003...

Democrat Jim Webb said yesterday that if he is elected to the U.S. Senate, he would sponsor legislation to raise the minimum wage. He said he would also push to remove the ability of Congress to increase its pay. "There are 153,000 Virginians earning an embarrassingly low $5.15 an hour minimum wage and while the same members of Congress, including George Allen, voted against raising that wage, they were voting to give themselves a total $31,600 in pay raises since they last raised the minimum wage," Webb said in a statement. "That is unfair, selfish and wrong." Webb supported a...

Arlington—The campaign of U.S. Senate candidate Jim Webb today called the attacks on Webb’s patriotism by Allen’s campaign, “weak-kneed attacks by cowards” and demanded that Allen and his campaign apologize. “George Felix Allen Jr. and his bush-league lapdog, Dick Wadhams, have not earned the right to challenge Jim Webb’s position on free speech and flag burning. Jim Webb served and fought for our flag and what it stands for, while George Felix Allen Jr. chose to cut and run. When he and his disrespectful campaign puppets attack Jim Webb they are attacking every man and woman who served. Their comments...

George Allen would defeat Jim Webb if the election of U.S. Senate in Virginia were held today. That's the finding of a statewide News-7 poll conducted this week. This is the first SurveyUSA poll since Jim Webb won the Democratic nomination to face Republican incumbent George Allen. SurveyUSA interviewed 1,200 Virginia adults Sunday through Wednesday of this week. Of them, 984 were registered to vote. Of them, 533 were judged to be "likely" voters. The breakdowns in "Survey Details" reflect likely voters. Fifty-six percent of the likely voters said they'd vote for Allen. Thirty-seven percent said they'd vote for Webb....

RICHMOND, Va. -- Republican Sen. George Allen attacked Democrat James Webb for opposing a constitutional flag-burning ban and Webb fired back Tuesday, calling Allen a coward who sat out the Vietnam War "playing cowboy at a dude ranch in Nevada." In a searing press statement, a senior adviser to Webb, a decorated Vietnam veteran, went to extraordinary lengths to question Allen's fortitude, even repeatedly using the middle name the senator detests and never uses, Felix. "While Jim Webb and others of George Felix Allen Jr.'s generation were fighting for our freedoms and for our symbols of freedom in Vietnam, George...

RICHMOND, Va. Democratic Senate candidate James Webb would have voted against setting a one-year timetable for withdrawing U-S troops from Iraq. But he but accused Republicans today of lacking a plan for ending the military entanglement. Webb, who is challenging incumbent Republican Senator George Allen, said it's not wise to set a hard deadline for withdrawing troops. The Senate defeated a resolution yesterday by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry that would have begun a troop drawdown in Iraq this year and finish it by July 2007 was defeated in the Senate yesterday, 86-to-13. Webb said this morning that he would have...

The Weekender: The Clash Of The Century Welcome to the Weekender. It's a new On Call experiment. Each Friday, we'll end the day with a longish post that probes an idea or a contested race or a political development that fascinates us. Last week, we gave you four reasons to pay attention to the Southern Baptist Convention's presidential election. This week, we tackle the conventional wisdom that Sen. George Allen’s 2008 hopes will be bruised by his competitive race and provide eight other reasons why Allen/Webb is this cycle's Daschle/Thune. # For the fist time in his political career, Sen....

The poll gap between Sen. George Allen and Democratic challenger James Webb stands at just over five points, according to a Wall Street Journal/Zogby poll released this morning. Webb defeated Harris Miller in the June Democratic primary to earn the right to challenge Allen in November. Today's poll has Allen favored by 48.8 percent of likely voters, Webb by 43.3 percent.

RICHMOND, Va. -- A political flier with a photo of Republican Sen. George Allen flanked by six Virginia state troopers has the agency's chief irked. The state police superintendent, Col. Steve Flaherty, said Thursday he called Allen's campaign to voice concerns that the photo, shot last summer at Quantico during a visit by President Bush, was appropriated for campaign use. The state police has a long-standing policy of remaining apolitical and nonpartisan. Though the flier does not say that the agency or officers endorse Allen, Flaherty says he becomes concerned when troopers' pictures appear in political publications. Flaherty said the...

In the wake of his June 13 primary win over Harris Miller, former Navy Secretary James Webb (D) has added eleven percentage points to his support in a match-up with incumbent Senator George Allen (R). The latest Rasmussen Reports election poll for the U.S. Senate shows Allen leading Webb 51% to 41%.

In the wake of his June 13 primary win over Harris Miller, former Navy secretary James Webb (D) has added eleven percentage points to his support in a match-up with incumbent Senator George Allen (R). The latest Rasmussen Reports election poll of the Virginia race for U.S. Senate shows Allen leading Webb 51% to 41%. (See crosstabs). In our previous poll, the incumbent led 50% to 30%. In early February, soon after announcing his candidacy, Webb had lagged by only twelve percentage points, but Allen soon widened the gap. Webb-who actually endorsed Allen in 2000-is a former Republican who left...

Democratic Senate nominee Jim Webb has proposed a series of debates with Republican incumbent George Allen. No problem; Allen is willing to agree to a series of debates. One problem: Webb wants to limit the topics to just a few (the only ones where he feels comfortable, no doubt).

A fresh Rasmussen poll(premium) shows that Allen is leading Webb by 51% to 41%. Apprently Webb got a bounce from his primary victory

The Democratic Party is that amazing thing, out of power for six years and yet exhausted. They're pale, tired and unready. Too bad, since it's their job to be an alternative, not an embarrassment. This week Democratic members of Congress and other elected officials unveil their "New Direction for America," the party's declaration of its reason for being. It said it stands firmly and unequivocally, without fear or favor, unwaveringly and with grit for . . . reducing the cost of student loans. And making prescription drugs less expensive. And raising the minimum wage. Etc. This is not a philosophy but a way--an...

Senators John Kerry, Chuck Schumer, and Harry Reid are congratulating themselves today. Thanks in part to their unusual primary endorsement, former Reagan Navy Secretary James Webb defeated Harris Miller for the Virginia Democratic senatorial nomination Tuesday night and will challenge Republican George Allen in November. Look for a fiery antiwar campaign by Webb, a Vietnam War hero who broke ranks with the GOP over Iraq. Perhaps most interestingly, he thinks Reagan Democrats can find a place in the party of Howard Dean, declaring precociously in his victory speech that “it’s time to welcome them home.” Just when it seemed like...

For months, James Webb has dreaded the endless questions about his past support of Republican Sen. George Allen. But last night, after officially claiming the nomination to try to return that Virginia Senate seat to the Democratic Party, it was one of the first things Webb brought up. "I supported George Allen six years ago because I thought he'd provide leadership," Webb told a cheering crowd in a Crystal City hotel. "I'm still waiting for the first concrete example." With that, the man who cast his first vote for a Democratic presidential candidate only two years ago made it clear...

Webb, a former Reagan administration Navy secretary who left the Republican Party over the Iraq war, won the Democratic nomination Tuesday to take on GOP Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record) in the fall. ADVERTISEMENT Webb defeated lobbyist and longtime Democratic Party activist Harris Miller after a bruising primary in which voters decided between a traditional and unabashed liberal (Miller) and a former Republican (Webb) whose populist campaign was aimed at so-called Reagan Democrats — namely, rural, white moderates. With 87 percent of precincts reporting, Webb had 73,031 votes, or 54 percent, compared with 61,566 votes, or 46 percent,...

One Democrat calls his rival the "anti-Christ of outsourcing" U.S. jobs and argues that he's trying to buy a win in the Virginia primary. The other fires back, labeling his opponent a sexist who is hostile to affirmative action and is, at heart, a Republican. Accusations fly freely in the Democratic primary between decorated Vietnam veteran and Reagan-era Navy secretary Jim Webb and former Internet industry lobbyist Harris Miller. The winner Tuesday will face first-term Sen. George Allen, a potential 2008 presidential candidate. Virginia is unaccustomed to primaries, especially bitter ones; the last Democratic Senate primary was in 1994. The...

The chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee endorsed James Webb yesterday in the U.S. Senate primary. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said Webb is "our best hope for defeating [U.S. Sen. George] Allen in November."