• George Allen,  James Webb

    VA-Sen Poll Watch: Jim Webb 49% Vs. George Allen 45%

    Former Virginia Senator George Allen and Senator Jim Webb

    This Senate contest in Virginia will be a battle royal.

    We polled the Jim Webb/George Allen rematch that’s now become a reality late last year and found Webb ahead 49-45.

    Senator Jim Webb has really not made a move to run for re-election, but it is assumed that he will. George Allen will announce his candidacy later in the day.

    In a state where the Republican nominee for President must win, if he or she is to beat President Obama, this race may revolve around turnout. This contest will involve a lot of personal campaigning and plenty of television ads in one of the most expensive Senate races in the country.

  • Barack Obama,  James Webb,  John McCain,  President 2008

    John McCain Watch: The 8th Attack on Military Record – James Webb Edition Pushback

    Webb and Obama

    Senators Barack Obama and James Webb

    Team McCain is pushing back on the Senator James Webb attack on the McCain military record last night on MSNBC.

    McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers:

    “If you didn’t think this was a coordinated attack on John McCain’s credentials before, it’s clear now that it is. Barack Obama’s surrogates are telling the McCain campaign to “calm down” about attacks on his military record? Seriously? Now somehow Wes Clark’s attacks are John McCain’s fault? It’s absurd. If Barack Obama can’t control his own surrogate operation, how can he be trusted to run the country?”

    Greg Sargent et. al. from the LEFT may believe that this eighth attack of the McCain military record is not a concerted and organized effort to impugn McCain but the record is clear. And Webb’s apologies from a spokesperson are ridiculously predictable.

    Who will be the next hit and run Democrat lackey to go after McCain’s military record? Jay Rockefeller and George McGovern have already been used.

    All of this discussion about McCain’s military and war record highlights the fact that Barack Obama has NO military experience.

    Previous:

    John McCain Watch: The 8th Attack on Military Record – James Webb Edition

    General Wesley Clark Attacks McCain AGAIN

    John McCain Watch: Wesley Clark Comment “UNNECESSARY”

    Barack Obama Throws General Wesley Clark Under the Bus Over McCain War Remarks


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  • James Webb,  John McCain,  President 2008

    John McCain Watch: The 8th Attack on Military Record – James Webb Edition

    Webb and Obama

    Senators Barack Obama and James Webb

    Flap wrote yesterday about the seemingly OVERT concerted effort by Democrats over time to impugn the military and war record of John McCain. Jim Geraghty over at National Review had a summary of the seven previous attacks:

    After statements by a half-dozen high-profile Democrats and Obama surrogates, you cannot persuade me that there is not a concerted effort on the part of Obama Democrats to criticize McCain on his war record. George McGovern, Jay Rockefeller, Tom Harkin, Democratic congressional candidate Bill Gillespie, Ed Schultz, Tony McPeak, and now Clark. Way too many to be coincidence. We’re seeing a lot more derisive comments about McCain’s wartime service than we are about Obama’s race.

    Well, make Senator John Webb’s attack last night on the Obie-One show the 8th attack.

    Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) waded into the debate over John McCain’s military service Monday to say that the Republican should avoid using military service in politics.

    “I think what we really need to work on over the next four, five months, and it goes back to the speech that Sen. Obama gave [Monday] and this little fight that I’ve been watching and that is, we need to make sure that we take politics out of service,” Webb said. “People don’t serve their country for political issues.”

    He continued: “And John McCain’s my long-time friend, if that is one area that I would ask him to calm down on, it`s that, don’t be standing up and uttering your political views and implying that all the people in the military support them because they don’t, any more than when the Democrats have political issues during the Vietnam War. Let’s get the politics out of the military, take care of our military people, or have our political arguments in other areas.”

    Excuse me Senator, but it was General Wesley Clark that started up the military discussion and impugning again. As did George McGovern and Senator Jay Rockefeller did before.

    And, may I remind you that your good friend, Senator Obama, has had NO MILITARY SERVICE for the United States.

    And, true to form, Senator Webb after these comments has now apologized through an office spokesperson.

    Webb’s office e-mailed the Briefing Room a response to critics who have argued that Webb is criticizing McCain’s military service.

    “Senator Webb has never, and would never, demean the service of anyone who has stepped forward to serve our country. To the contrary, he was calling on those on all sides of the debate to refrain from implying that their political views are representative of the military writ large,” wrote Webb’s press secretary, Kimberly Hunter.

    She stressed that Webb, the former Secretary of the Navy, has consistently argued against the injection of politics into military service by anyone.

    Anyone seeing a pattern here – after the 8th fraking attack?

    Flap is amazed that the MSM is not pressing on Obama to repudiate former General Wesley Clark and fire him from his campaign.

    But, they won’t.

    The eighth Democrat attack impugning John McCain and nobody from a major news organization says a damn thing. McCain plays defense and figures it won’t stick. The MSM doesn’t give a damn that the Democrats are flat out lying and playing an orchestrated SMEAR game.

    The little “unhidden secret” though is everytime McCain IS attacked American voters will be reminded that Barack Obama lacks ANY military experience or service.

    Previous:

    General Wesley Clark Attacks McCain AGAIN

    John McCain Watch: Wesley Clark Comment “UNNECESSARY”

    Barack Obama Throws General Wesley Clark Under the Bus Over McCain War Remarks


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  • Barack Obama,  James Webb,  President 2008

    Barack Obama Watch: Scratch James Webb as Vice President

    Barack Obama and James Webb

    Sen. James Webb, D-Va., left, stands with Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., during a campaign event at the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Va. Thursday, June 5, 2008

    Scratch Senator James Webb as Barack Obama’s Vice President.

    Why you ask?

    Webb is a confederate REBEL at heart or so he writes.

    Webb is no mere student of the Civil War era. He’s an author, too, and he’s left a trail of writings and statements about one of the rawest and most sensitive topics in American history.

    He has suggested many times that while the Confederacy is a symbol to many of the racist legacy of slavery and segregation, for others it simply reflects Southern pride. In a June 1990 speech in front of the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, posted on his personal website, he lauded the rebels’ “gallantry,” which he said “is still misunderstood by most Americans.”

    Webb, a descendant of Confederate officers, also voiced sympathy for the notion of state sovereignty as it was understood in the early 1860s, and seemed to suggest that states were justified in trying to secede.

    “Most Southern soldiers viewed the driving issue to be sovereignty rather than slavery,” he said. “Love of the Union was palpably stronger in the South than in the North before the war — just as overt patriotism is today — but it was tempered by a strong belief that state sovereignty existed prior to the Constitution and that it had never been surrendered.”

    Webb expanded on his sentiments in his well-received 2004 book, “Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America,” which portrays the Southern cause as at least understandable, if not wholly laudable.

    “The venerable Robert E. Lee has taken some vicious hits, as dishonest or misinformed advocates among political interest groups and in academia attempt to twist yesterday’s America into a fantasy that might better service the political issues of today,” he wrote. “The greatest disservice on this count has been the attempt by these revisionist politicians and academics to defame the entire Confederate Army in a move that can only be termed the Nazification of the Confederacy.” As in the Confederate Memorial speech, Webb suggests in his book that relatively few Southerners were slaveholders and that the war was fought over state sovereignty, which in the eyes of many at the time included the right to secede from the national government.

    “The states that had joined the Union after the Revolution considered themselves independent political entities, much like the countries of Europe do today,” Webb wrote. “The 10th Amendment to the Constitution reserved to the states all rights not specially granted to the federal government, and in their view the states had thus retained their right to dissolve the federal relationship.”

    Don’t think the Black Congressional Caucus nor the Civil Rights coalition of the Democrat Party will give a positive vetting of Webb.

    Another potential “moderate” Vice President candidate bites the dust.


  • Barack Obama,  Evan Bayh,  Hillary Clinton,  James Webb,  President 2008

    Barack Obama Watch: The Real Vice President?

    Barack Obama and James Webb

    Photo Courtesy of Skeptical Brotha

    Is Team Obama “FIGHTING OFF” the Clintons for payment of their campaign debt by channeling Senator James Webb for Vice President?

    Another way to stop the Hillary-for-Veep speculation: Fire up some other speculation.

    And so Obama announced this morning that he’d be campaigning in Virginia with Senator Jim Webb and former Governor Mark Warner.

    Senator Webb has been touted as the Vice Presidential candidate who best augments the lack of military experience of Obama, comes from a possible pick-up state in the Electoral College, Virginia, and is a former Reagan Republican.

    Flap thinks Webb is in the running and look at what Intrade says this morning:

    Intrade on Obama Democrat Vice President

    As of this morning, Webb’s stock is up and Hillary’s is down. Obama has to balance the loss of white working class women who are pissed at him for beating Hillary with bolstering his foreign policy and military credentials.

    An Evan Bayh from Indiana would be a “SAFE” choice.


  • James Webb,  Michael Ramirez

    Michael Ramirez on Senator James Webb and the Gun

    ramireztoon032907web

    Webb Is Vague About Gun Incident

    U.S. Sen. James Webb expressed support yesterday for a top aide caught with a handgun in a Senate office building but shed little light on his role in what he described as an “unfortunate” situation.

    Webb (D-Va.) declined to confirm what the aide, Phillip Thompson, told authorities after he was taken into custody on Monday: that the gun belongs to the senator and that he was “safekeeping” it for him. Webb said that a mix-up was to blame for the episode but that he could not provide details because Thompson faces criminal charges.

    “I think this is one of those very unfortunate situations where, completely inadvertently, he took the weapon into the Senate yesterday,” Webb said. Beyond that, Webb provided little information, never saying whether the gun is his.

    “I have never carried a gun in the Capitol complex, and I did not give the weapon to Phillip Thompson, and that’s all that I think I’ll say,” Webb said during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol.

    So, Senator, you have no knowledge that your aide carries a gun?

    There is more to this story.

    Previous:

    The Michael Ramirez Files


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  • James Webb

    James Webb Watch: The BOOR

    webbnovember30aweb

    Democrat James Webb holds an election victory rally in Arlington, Virginia, next to his wife Hong Le Webb, moments after his opponent, incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. George Allen, concedes defeat in his bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate, November 9, 2006. Webb’s victory insures the Democrats will control the U.S. Senate.

    George Will: Webb Offends Bush & the English Language

    That was certainly swift. Washington has a way of quickly acculturating people, especially those who are most susceptible to derangement by the derivative dignity of office. But Jim Webb, Democratic senator-elect from Virginia, has become a pompous poseur and an abuser of the English language before actually becoming a senator.

    Wednesday’s Washington Post reported that at a White House reception for newly elected members of Congress, Webb “tried to avoid President Bush,” refusing to pass through the reception line or have his picture taken with the president. When Bush asked Webb, whose son is a Marine in Iraq, “How’s your boy?” Webb replied, “I’d like to get them (sic) out of Iraq.” When the president again asked, “How’s your boy?” Webb replied, “That’s between me and my boy.” Webb told the Post:

    “I’m not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall. No offense to the institution of the presidency, and I’m certainly looking forward to working with him and his administration. (But) leaders do some symbolic things to try to convey who they are and what the message is.”

    Webb certainly has conveyed what he is: a boor. Never mind the patent disrespect for the presidency. Webb’s more gross offense was calculated rudeness toward another human being — one who, disregarding many hard things Webb had said about him during the campaign, asked a civil and caring question, as one parent to another. When — if ever — Webb grows weary of admiring his new grandeur as a “leader” who carefully calibrates the “symbolic things” he does to convey messages, he might consider this: In a republic, people decline to be led by leaders who are insufferably full of themselves.

    Not an auspicious start for the Senator-elect, James Webb.

    Boorish behavior?

    You bet – like you get over at the NUTROOTS home, Daily Kos.

    Based on Webb’s behavior before being sworn in, one shudders to think what he will be like after that. He already has become what Washington did not need another of, a subtraction from the city’s civility and clear speaking.

    Indeed

    It WILL be a long six years with this character.


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  • Election 2006,  George Allen,  James Webb,  Politics

    Election 2006 Watch: James Webb Beats George Allen – Democrats Take Control of the United States Senate

    webbnovember8aweb

    AP: Democrats Take Control of the Senate

    Democrats wrested control of the Senate from Republicans Wednesday with an upset victory in Virginia, giving the party complete domination of Capitol Hill for the first time since 1994.

    Jim Webb’s squeaker win over incumbent Sen. George Allen gave Democrats their 51st seat in the Senate, an astonishing turnabout at the hands of voters unhappy with Republican scandal and unabated violence in Iraq. Allen was the sixth Republican incumbent senator defeated in Tuesday’s elections.

    The Senate breakdown will be 49-49-2 with the two independents voting with the Democrats.

    Just as Flap predicted – A DEBACLE

    The Senate had teetered at 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans for most of Wednesday, with Virginia hanging in the balance. Webb’s victory ended Republican hopes of eking out a 50-50 split, with Vice President Dick Cheney wielding tie-breaking authority.

    The Associated Press contacted election officials in all 134 localities where voting occurred, obtaining updated numbers Wednesday. About half the localities said they had completed their postelection canvassing and nearly all had counted outstanding absentees. Most were expected to be finished by Friday.

    The new AP count showed Webb with 1,172,538 votes and Allen with 1,165,302, a difference of 7,236. Virginia has had two statewide vote recounts in modern history, but both resulted in vote changes of no more than a few hundred votes.

    An adviser to Allen, speaking on condition of anonymity because his boss had not formally decided to end the campaign, said the senator wanted to wait until most of canvassing was completed before announcing his decision, possibly as early as Thursday evening.

    The adviser said that Allen was disinclined to request a recount if the final vote spread was similar to that of election night.

    The victory puts Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in line to become Senate majority leader. He has led the Democrats since Tom Daschle, D-S.D., was defeated two years ago.

    The Macaca Flap killed George Allen and the GOP’s control of the United States Senate.

    This Democrat Party majority may not be so easy to defend in 2008 – where the attention now goes.

    The Dems up for re-election in ’08 include Max Baucus in Montana, Tim Johnson in South Dakota, Mary Landrieu in Louisiana, Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Tom Harkin in Iowa, and Jay Rockefeller in West Virginia. (Other “safe” Democrats include Slow Joe Biden, Dick Durbin, Carl Levin, John Kerry, Frank Lautenber, and Rhode Island’s Jack Reed.) Baucus, Johnson, Landrieu, Pryor, Harkin and Rockefeller all must have begun worrying about the burden they will have to carry in ’08. The first order of business for the GOP will be recruitment of great challengers for these races.

    Time to get busy and recruit some good candidates.

    Any bets that James Webb will be Hillary’s vice presidential running mate in 2008?

    Stay tuned….


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