Jim Webb nipped Virginia Sen. George Allen by less than a half-point in November 2006, but the margin didn’t make him bashful.
When he went to the White House that year with the rest of his freshman class — 10 Democrats and one Republican — Webb ducked the receiving line in what was widely seen as a snub to President George W. Bush.
The senator-elect told reporters later that when Bush corralled him after the photo op to inquire about Webb’s son, he told Bush to leave his boy out of it and bring all the troops back from Iraq.
At the time, Webb’s defiant attitude was celebrated on the Left. Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan, a hero in Vietnam and a proud descendant of the Appalachian warrior caste, Webb was touted again and again by Democrats as evidence of the expanded appeal of their party.
For liberals, Webb’s call for withdrawal from Iraq was evidence that the best way to support the troops was to defeat Republicans. Webb and other combat-tested war opponents shielded less bellicose Democrats like Sen. Barack Obama against charges of pacifism.
But Jim Webb is not John Kerry, who lamented a military that “razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan.”
When pressed in the 2006 Democratic primary as to why he had left the Republican Party, Webb explained that in his research for the book “Born Fighting” about the Scots-Irish, he came to appreciate the Democratic populism of the first president from the Hillbilly Firewall, Andrew Jackson.
Old Hickory had nothing against wars as long as he was winning them. And Webb’s argument against invading Iraq in 2003 was not that it would be morally wrong, but that it would not be worth the effort, which he insisted Bush was vastly underestimating.
Webb argued for containing Saddam Hussein and against a war he said would sap American strength to the advantage of radical Islam and other long-term military rivals like China and Russia.
It wasn’t exactly the liberal line, but for the sake of beating a high-value target like Allen and embarrassing the Bush administration, Webb’s rationale was close enough
Webb waited until after the last Democratic primary in June 2008 to endorse Obama over Hillary Clinton, but he did campaign with him a few times in Virginia. His biggest help to Obama, though, was in rebutting criticism from his fellow Vietnam hero John McCain.
Since Obama has taken office, Webb’s support has grown weaker. It’s been particularly noticeable since Virginia voters swung sharply away from the Democratic Party on Nov. 3.
Webb recently sent Obama a letter warning the president against making any promises to his fellow world leaders when he hits the U.N.’s global warming summit in Copenhagen next week.
“As you well know from your time in the Senate, only specific legislation agreed upon in the Congress, or a treaty ratified by the Senate, could actually create such a commitment on behalf of our country,” Webb wrote.
Webb and fellow hillbilly Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., want to skip Obama’s “cap and trade” plan in favor of building 100 new nuclear power plants in the next decade.
On health care, Webb was slow to agree to allow debate to begin on his party’s bill in the Senate and continues to say he will oppose any bill that is not “reasonable in scope, cost and impact” or that expands coverage to the detriment of the middle class — signs he might block Obama’s costly plan.
Webb rebuked Obama for deciding to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other terrorists in civilian courts as opposed to military tribunals.
“They do not belong in our country, they do not belong in our courts and they do not belong in our prisons,” Webb told Chris Wallace of Fox News.
But the big test on party loyalty for Webb will be on Tuesday when the president rolls out his modified strategy on the Afghan war: tens of thousands of additional troops to serve an ambitious nation-building strategy with new benchmarks for the woeful government in Kabul.
If Webb balks at the idea of having 100,000 American troops trying to civilize a perpetually failed state, Obama’s request for more war funding could be a dead letter in the Senate.
Webb’s opposition would rally the Left, which believes Obama is now in the thrall of the military-industrial complex, and give courage to a number of conservatives who think Obama’s strategy is doomed but are afraid to give the impression that they’re not supporting the troops.
What could be more fitting for a senator who claims the mantle of Andrew Jackson than to kick over the status quo in Washington?
Chris Stirewalt is the political editor of The Washington Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected]
