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Jim Webb’s spectacular flame-out.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  July 23rd, 2010 at 08:00 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Oh, Jimmy.

Forty years ago, as the United States experienced the civil rights movement, the supposed monolith of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant dominance served as the whipping post for almost every debate about power and status in America. After a full generation of such debate, WASP elites have fallen by the wayside and a plethora of government-enforced diversity policies have marginalized many white workers. The time has come to cease the false arguments and allow every American the benefit of a fair chance at the future.

I have dedicated my political career to bringing fairness to America’s economic system and to our work force, regardless of what people look like or where they may worship. Unfortunately, present-day diversity programs work against that notion, having expanded so far beyond their original purpose that they now favor anyone who does not happen to be white.

I wonder if the above was the Senatorial equivalent of a mid-life crisis? – Although that’s not nearly self-destructive enough to be a true analogy.  Senator Webb seems to have forgotten that he has a ‘D’ after his name these days, which effectively means that this entire article is thoughtcrime that will pretty much guarantee him a messy primary in 2012.  Progressives do not appreciate thoughtcrime, particularly in their converts: they bought Jimmy Webb in 2006, and they expect their purchases to perform as expected.

Do I sound entertained?  It’s because I am: and I will enjoy every second that Jimmy Webb is broken on the wheel for relapsing into error like this.  And do you know why I will enjoy every second?  Because of ‘macaca,’ that’s why.  Jimmy Webb stood by and calmly, disinterestedly watched as his new owners flash-mobbed his opponent for supposed racism in the 2006 Senatorial election. He did that because Jimmy Webb wanted to be Senator so badly that he was willing to overlook precisely the hyper-emphasis of race that he complains about now; after all, it put him in office, and that was the important thing, right?

So: Jimmy Webb is right in that we need to stop using race as a criterion for public assistance, and that government-operated diversity programs are doing the country no favors.  And I hope to God that the progressive movement uses my agreement – and the rest of the VRWC’s – to utterly destroy Jimmy Webb’s career.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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COMMENTS

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  • stilhdr

    I wonder how Virginia’s 2 democratic senators will fare, in light of the republican governor and the quick turnaround of the state debt.

  • hickorystick

    on this. Excellent piece; well-written, thoughtful, studied, and honest. I am definately giving my vote to James Webb for the “One man with Courage, is always is in the Majority” award.

  • m_quick

    Don’t agree with him on most stuff, but I agree with him on this.

  • bk

    “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

  • IJB

    He’s unquestionably right on this point.

    But, as Moe says – this will split Dems on him, and that’ll probably be enough to sink him next time around.

  • hickorystick

    Virginians don’t seem like they practise touchy-feely politics. It’s probably OK to have an honest conversation (I’m Washingtonian). The western half of the state is filled with Scots-Irish even to this day. It’s part of the Jacksonian Belt of politics. The Jacksonian belt is winding up to deliver a walloping to Dems this year. Webb spoke the truth, and articulated it in a way I believe will gain him support in the west of his state. The poverty is brutal, I hear from my cousin, in the Mountain area. I think he is going to have to back up his words nationally, but I doubt he will receive much grief within his state (or earmarks from now on).
    ps McDonnell wasn’t exactly PC in his election, and he did fine.

  • tngal

    warranties assuring they won’t break down or money back guarantees in the event they don’t work as we expect. Could we all learn a bit from this consumer moment?

    Yes! Get their bona fides in writing!

    I will not support ( pick something )
    I will support (pick something )

    * Any warranties/guarantees issued during any campaign are good for a period not lasting beyond upcoming election date. But are subject to renewal approximately 180 days prior to the next election. You are automatically enrolled into the program and will continue to receive correspondence from this campaign. If you have a complaint regarding the campaigner you purchased call 1-800-byte-me. Press 1 for Spanish, 2 for Chinese; 3647 for English. We would give you the office hours but why bother we’re not going to answer anyway.

    (Sorry. Am venting. Got in an electro-phone loop today with a state office on the local level. Must hunt down beverage of choice. )

  • lineholder

    which is in the SW part of the state, was at 22% according to some residents who live there. Martinsville is a little over an hour’s drive from where I work. We get visitors from there once in a while.

  • qixlqatl

    the current state of affairs has had me “choosing” a bit too frequently of late ;) , so I’m laying off for a while.

    And an excellent point on the warranties offered when purchasing a politician.

  • Read Chesterton

    How many other democrats over the next year will step outside, stick a wetted index finger up in the air and decide that the weather is just fine for an honestly expressed opinion on the scourge of some politically correct abomination of liberalism?

    I think we are seeing the dawn of a new age. As the RINOs sink into the tar pits, out come the DINOs to scavenge for whatever they can from what’s left of the disenfranchised middle.

  • hickorystick

    The economies tough, and his folk need some help. This is 50 state thinking, where you represent your constituency, rather than Party ideology.
    I’m sorry to hear that about Martinsville. I have been trying to support South Park, a community where they lost the bridge that links their small business to Boeing. According to the papers, the Boeing IAM 751 boys have been great about making the drive around, to have lunch in SP, and support the area. The Dems have severed a link that has existed for 81 years. They would go to places like Cherry Daze and Jalisco and Napoli’s Pizza for lunch by foot, for decades.

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    Macaca

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    He stood by in 2006 and let the Left swarm his opponent like the hyenas that they were and are. Don’t ever brag about how you’re going to support a race-baiting Democrat on this site ever again.

  • Superheater

    Then again, writing comes easy to him:

    “I’ve written for a living all my life, so writing is as much a part of me as working out.” (source Wikipedia, via attribution)

    That doesn’t make it sincere.

    Nobody with his resume didn’t know exactly what he was buying when he sold his soul to the Democratic party.

    Bank on it. This is nothing but rebranding for an election where he needs some distance from the messiah cum pariah.

    This is the worst kind of politician, the kind that has no core, but a finger that’s very sensitive to prevailing wind direction.

  • rs2044

    Although this piece may have sealed his fate, I have always believed that Webb is a one-term Senator. I live in Blacksburg, VA, and I remember the 2006 election all too well. Most people forget that even after the “Macaca” incident, Webb won by only a small margin.

    Here are the final results: Webb – 49.59%, Allen – 49.2%; Webb won by only 9,329 votes. Also, a third party candidate ran that year and received 26,102 votes. Clearly this hurt Allen more than Webb. Northern Virginia pushed Webb across the finish line in first place.

    (Source: http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/ElectionResults/2006/Nov/htm/l_02.htm)

    Given that Webb won by only 9,329 votes in a strong Democrat election year, I do not anticipate Webb winning again in 2012 if current events and economic conditions remain the same as today.

  • Superheater

    Oh yeah, that’s Democrat party.

  • lineholder

    sometimes, like the effort you are referring to in driving the long way around to support some of their own during a time of need, is one of the traits that I admire the most about the people of this country.

    I don’t know Mr. Webb’s voting record. I know that most of the people in SW Virginia are mountain folks who are basically good people that just have their own way of doing things. They don’t forgive betrayals very quickly, if ever.

    If Mr. Webb has voted in a way that reflects a genuine effort to protect what is in their best interest, they’ll return that loyalty with loyalty. But if he’s gone with the flow of party politics and betrayed their trust in the process, then the chances are that he’s dug a hole of his own making with these constituents.

  • rs2044

    I just read that the third party candidate ran on the “Independent Green” party. Thus, this actually may have hurt Webb more than it hurt Allen.

  • clintonformccain

    Speaking up or voting against the financial reform bill that adds a federal affirmative action mandate to all sectors of the financial industry and creates dozens of new federal offices to browbeat industry over required affirmative action mandates.

  • Scope

    Webb only got elected because he had the WaPo in his favor, no surprise there. When the 3 top Repubs ran this year and won,it was in spite of WaPo. WaPo tried desperately to take McDonnell down because of a 20 year old college paper. They didn’t succeed.

    Apparently Hickorystick conveniently forgets the Macca moment. It took an R down that was headed for bigger and better things in his future. Think today about “macca”, isn’t it a little stupid to use that term in politics. When I was growing up, when someone dirtied their pants it was referred to as macacca.

    Hickorystick forgets that Jim Webb wrote a novel where he relayed a story about a father and son having sex. That was exposed in the election, but, George Allens macacca was the defining moment, by the WaPo.

    Hickorystick, if all you think about is a fellow Scotts Irish, and that is the basis of your support, you are one sick dude.

    Webb is gone after 2012, and, not simply because of this post. His honor and valor were left on the battlefield.

  • hickorystick

    I never said I support his candidacy. It’s called political discourse.
    it’s not Webb’s job to get his opponents foot of his mouth. Macaca is Allen catching himself calling the guy a Macaque, or french for monkey. His North African mother taught him this slang for an oversexed native.

  • hickorystick

    and knew not only how to extract himself, but how to avoid getting into trouble in the first place. As far as the Scots-Irish part, I am not a generic American, and nobody is. We lie when we say we came from no place. When I go to war, I’ll be American. Otherwise I am a Scots-Irish Washingtonian and a Republican, amongst many other things.
    Personally I think when people over-identify as American, they are trying to cover something. The paternal side of my family arrived in 1871 form Ireland, and I’ll keep my history, thank-you very much. I think what you are trying to say Scope, is that your American, but you aren’t going to quote any African poems. I think it is a slick way of saying America is for american history only, except for the British parts; which I find repulsive. But that’s only my opinion.

  • vmo335

    He is spineless and like an amoeba his shape will change based on external influences. Virginia used to produce some of the best and brightest statesmen this country has ever seen. All we get here in the Commonwealth now are the likes of Webb, Warner(d). Robb didn’t do much either, other than marrying a Johnson (insert one- liner here) and Allen could have done good things, but he shied away from the standard of Madison, Mason, and Henry. Cantor is getting himself added to the list of do-nothings from Virginia as well. He knows what he has to do, but is too timid to be the man that he needs to be. Reminds me of Robert the Bruce from Braveheart (take that, Jimmy).

  • vmo335

    He is spineless and like an amoeba his shape will change based on external influences. Virginia used to produce some of the best and brightest statesmen this country has ever seen. All we get here in the Commonwealth now are the likes of Webb, Warner(d). Robb didn’t do much either, other than marrying a Johnson (insert one- liner here) and Allen could have done good things, but he shied away from the standard of Madison, Mason, and Henry. Cantor is getting himself added to the list of do-nothings from Virginia as well. He knows what he has to do, but is too timid to be the man that he needs to be. Reminds me of Robert the Bruce from Braveheart (take that, Jimmy).

  • hickorystick

    The Folks in that area vote red for President, and blue for state. WV is a classic. Voted for Robert Byrds handouts for years, but are strong war supporters. Coal and unions are there economic lifeline. If R’s wanted to dent these areas, they would have to distinguish between government unions and blue-collar actually produce something Unions.
    An interesting note, the Boeing Boys have actively lobbied Boeing Company to help with the bridge, but the Longshoremen, or Wobblies as I call them because they came out of the Woods from the surrounding area, have had nothing to say. They support “Brothers” in South American Ports, but stonewall their neighbors in their home Port. Curious.

  • gamechange11two

    All Americans. But will we call for it?

    http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/Lyndon_B_Johnson/1.htm
    This is a lot of vague nothing.

    “How many more times?”- Robert Plant

    Why does it feel like the left thinks equality is an outdated concept?

  • ywhyvon1

    I came across this as a post on Dan Benishek’s FB Page.

    http://vnvets.blogspot.com/2010/07/dems-abandon-vets-to-die-in-poverty.html

  • lineholder

    that voting pattern changes.

  • hickorystick

    The underreported story of the McConnell, Christie, and Brown elections, is that they chose their battles carefully. They supported what they could in their own state. They ran on state and local issues. They were respectful to the voters, and courteous to those who would probably stay in their own camp. If R’s don’t have the biggest victory this year in the history of the Country, it is their fault, and their fault alone.

  • crosley

    The fact that racial preferences are still legal despite the fact that nearly 70% of Americans oppose them is a result of Republicans being cowards on this issue. If Republicans displayed the courage Webb did, we would have gotten rid of these programs a long time ago.

    Republicans would be far wiser to pursue white Reagan Democrats than to chase the Al Sharpton crowd.

    Minorities would actually be far more likely to start voting Republican if this issue was no longer on the table and racial preferences and set asides were outlawed. They could move on with real issues instead of obsessing over skin color.

  • NoDoze

    politician trying to get re-elected as a conservative. That is what he did the first time, and like most politicians, if it worked the first time, try it again. That piece in the WSJ is as disingenuous as the rest of his political career. It is called pandering.

  • NoDoze

    n/t

  • 6eorge Jetson

    From 1960 to 1996, West Virginia voted for the Democrat in Presidential Elections except for in two Republican Presidential landslides (Nixon vs Wallace 72, Reagan vs Mondale 84).

    It wasn’t until the shuttering the coal industry by the Democrats became a real possibility with Gore in 2000 that WV switched to voting Republican.

    What’s the point of having a coal union if there is no coal industry?

  • redtillimdead

    I’d be happy about Webb having the courage to tell the truth. But because of that, it pisses me off. Taking out George Allen hurt. I just hope Allen can return the favor in 2012. Just think, if it weren’t for Webb, McCain might not have never become the nominee.

  • redtillimdead

    After he loses this year, he might be looking for something to do. Maybe he’d primary Webb?
    And to posters above suggesting Republican’s use this against Dems: We can’t, because Steve King and Tom Tancredo made similar comments, and you can bet the media would point that out.

  • 6eorge Jetson

    Policy makers ignored such disparities within America’s white cultures when, in advancing minority diversity programs, they treated whites as a fungible monolith. Also lost on these policy makers were the differences in economic and educational attainment among nonwhite cultures. And surely there is a difference between white conservatives and white D-bags.

    OK, I added that last line

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …who stood by and did nothing while his race-baiting best buddies went after his opponent.

    Leave this thread, hickorystick. We’re not interested in excuse-making for Democrats.

  • callawyn

    Check this out:

    http://www.cir-usa.org/cases/prop209_info.html

    California, of all places, passed a Constitutional Amendment banning such preferences. It passed, mainly, because in CA you can get stuff like this done through voter referendum. As you point out, the vast majority of Americans are opposed to all such racial/gender preferences. The problem is the majority of our representatives are brainwashed ‘diversity’ zealots intent on imposing their social-engineering experiments on us ignorant racist peasants.

    Washington State, Michigan and Nebraska have also banned such discrimination. Jeb Bush did the same in FL. Of course, there are differences between banning it by executive order, by law, and by State Constitutional Amendment.

    Note that the majority of those are blue states. Most of the money for campaigning for/against these laws went towards propaganda opposing them.. Despite these long odds, Equality won big at the voting booth, despite being underfunded in a blue state.

    You can now sue, and win, in CA against laws requiring racial discrimination.

    Too bad we don’t have something like that in the US Constitution. Just a suggestion, but perhaps a clear declaration that “All men are created equal” and a provision that “no state shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” should be enough to put an end to thousands of pages of institutionalized racial/gender discrimination in our federal laws.

    After all, a Constitutional Amendment clearly providing that we are all equal before the law must trump laws that require discrimination in order to attempt to provide equality of results, right? Oh….

    The ‘libtards’ aren’t stupid. they know they can win in court with liberal activist judges to advance their agenda in ways that could never be passed in a legislature. Meanwhile, the R’s put Lindsay Graham on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it is essential that not a single party member break ranks and vote for a socialist tyrant being appointed to a lifetime position as a federal judge or, worse, to the SCOTUS. Imbeciles. Not just Graham, but all responsible for him on the Committee where he could do the most possible harm.

  • callawyn

    9,329 votes is well within the margin of ACORN.

    Don’t forget, Creigh Deeds was still doing all he could to make sure that military were denied the right to vote in VA.

    On the plus side, I actually get to vote against Webb now that I live in VA. Hopefully it will do more good than my decades of votes against Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy (In MA, if you mention at a polling place that you are not a Democrat, they assume that you simply haven’t yet officially joined the party and offer to sign you up).

  • callawyn

    Periodically, I attempt to convince some of them that the Democratic Party does not represent their interests. Knowing they have been taught their entire lives to regard Republicans not merely as the party representing the ‘bosses’ but that R’s are actually the ENEMY, I try to present them with arguments that will make sense given their mindset.

    Interestingly, they are natural Conservatives, and not just on social issues. After all, they work hard and pay taxes, so there’s nothing in the liberal agenda that now controls the Democratic Party that could possibly help them. I point out that the D’s want to take a greater % of their paycheck for the sole purpose of redistributing it to someone that probably doesn’t work at all. It’ll take time, but gradually you can convince private sector labor that the D’s are not what they used to be and that their actual agenda is anathema to virtually their entire belief system as well as their financial interests.

    Targeting your argument to your audience works on actual liberals too. I have a hard-left liberal friend that’s a university professor in DC, Islamic Studies, and also works for NPR. Despite that, yes, we are actually friends, shocking eh? Anyway, I’m in the energy business, he asked me about wind & solar. I launched on an hour long diatribe denouncing everything Green, complete with more facts than you could imagine and impeccable logic, but noticed I was making no impression at all. I thought a bit, and explained to him that “Green Energy” is a massive transfer of wealth, monthly and forever, from hard working laborers to the greedy owners of the privately owned companies that build the solar panels and turbines. Absolutely true, and fit within his preconceptions of labor = always good and capitalists = evil greedy bastards. I neglected to mention that many of these companies are located in China, because to a leftist of course, China = Awesome.

  • aesthete

    Better Democrats than Webb (Daniel Moynihan, Zell Miller) have had their careers destroyed over less; I only hope that we can take advantage of this to get our own candidate in.

  • RedBeard

    What a load of hooey. Sounds like something our Citizen of the World Barack Obama might say as he travels the world talking down America.

    My ancestry is German, Swiss, French, and Scotch-Irish, and that’s all wonderful and interesting. But my nationality is American. 100% American. No hyphens. No reservations.

    I suppose that if I didn’t “over-identify as American” I would be running around in lederhosen and a beret, greeting people by yodeling a version of “Top o’ the mornin’ to yis.”

    Good grief.

  • RedBeard

    I noted the last line in Johnson’s speech: “We are still far from that goal.”

    The irony is that we are now much farther from the goal, thanks to muddle-headed sociobabble nonsense turned into law, like the abominably misnamed Great Society.”

    The truly astounding thing is that after 45 years of throwing trillions of dollars at the problems and moving backwards as a result, most lefties still think that a few more trillions will fix everything. Of course, the balance of the lefties simply see all this social engineering as a path to power via the establishment of an ever-growing dependency class. Which is worse, the deluded and mindless lefties, or the dishonest and devious ones?

  • Scope

    and he is getting a jump on his campaigning with writing this article. Following in the O’s footsteps, the D’s start campaigning early, if they ever stop campaigning at all.

    I think there is a good possibility that George Allen may challenge Webb for his seat back, and he would win. Allen has taken on the energy debate, and started the American Energy Freedom Center-

    http://www.energyfreedomcenter.org/

    If the Dems don’t ram through any Global Warming legislation in the lame duck season, it will never pass in the next 2 years. Allen would be a terrific Senator to move the R’s in the right direction on any energy legislation. Allen is on local radio often talking about the energy issue. He hasn’t disappeared into thin air.

  • mriggio

    Spot on!

    Plus the added benefit of creating an ever-growing bureaucracy to to oversee the dependents. What’s not to like?

    Cheers!

  • Scope

    He sure has brought home the bacon for his district. Unfortunately it has all been for just one area, Charlottesville, where all his donors with the big bucks reside. The lower portion of the district is still experiencing very high unemployment, and he has done nothing for them except get stimulus money for a bike path there. He promised the lower staters that he was going to bring all kinds of “green jobs” to them. He promised that he was going to bring all kinds of green companies to that area. It never happened. His earmark and stimulus $ all went to UVA.

    Our current R Lt. Governor was assigned the task of bringing business into the state, and I believe he was successful in getting some company to move into Martinsville. There are a few others as well, such as a tobacco processing plant in Danville. This can only help any Republican running for office that covers that area. Our former Governor, and current DNC loudmouth and liar, Timmy Kaine chased businesses out of the state, just as the D Gov right before him, Mark Warner. Warner passed the highest tax increase in VA’s history. Warner is the other VA Senator.

    I will laugh my pants off if Timmy Kaine tries to primary the wayward Dem Webb.

  • Scope

    is as Thatcher said- “Eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
    Come next year, the new welfare entitlement, unemployment as far as the eye can see, will not be extended over and over. The R’s would do well to pass the legislation, but, counter it with spending cuts somewhere else. If the O doesn’t sign the legislation, he will be the heartless one, as they are now calling the R’s. The O, and the Dems, have no idea how their stupid allegations are going to turn right back on they themselves. Every time they open their mouths, it is only to exchange feet, and, it isn’t only Joe Biteme.

  • mriggio

    is that they continue to dig the debt-hole deeper. Could have funded extended unemployment with the (already borrowed) slush-fund ‘stimulus’ dollars, but no, let’s keep digging.

    Oddly, they never hear/acknowledge/understand how stupid and hypocritical they sound whenever their own words do come back to bite them. They just blissfully continue on, because they’re the ‘good’ people. This talk of continuing unemployment levels at or above 9% for years on end is truly disheartening; remember how they tried to convince everyone we were in a terrible recession when Bush was running 4-5% unemployment?

    Cheers!

  • lukematthews

    Webb was a reliable and ever-ready ‘yeah’ vote on the floor for Obamacare, the stimulus, financial deform, and would have happily voted for Crap and Tax, given the chance. While the sentiment expressed in his piece does have merit, his actions are abominable. His complete lack of substance when facing such issues shows it doesn’t mean a thing to him. He’s a happy socialist but wants us all to just get along. That does not constitute a person who should be considered for reelection.

  • Scope

    If the Republicans can prove to the American people that they deserve to lead over the next 2 years, then we will have even larger gains in 2012, including the presidency. Once the Marxists are out, I believe that all the small business people will begin to hire/rehire and invest in new businesses. It will depend on the R’s cutting spending, and, most importantly defunding the Marxist utopian passed legislation. The R’s can pretty quickly cut taxes to stimulate the economy if we have the WH and the Congress. It won’t happen overnight, but with more confidence alone, things will begin to improve. Hopefully the R’s won’t blow what could be a free lunch.

  • mriggio

    Dare I say great minds?

    Cheers!

  • Scope

    and I do believe orange will be a becoming color on ole Rangel.

  • tankertodd

    If Allen has a North African Jewish mother do people really think he’s a racist? It made little sense for hanging a guy who used an antiquated word that may/may not be a slur, but then when he turns out to have some diversity in his bloodline it just is all STUPID. The same stupidity that Webb (who apparently thinks he’s up for reelection this year) is speaking out against.

    Moe’s nailed this one.

  • creditman

    I believe that the crux of Webbs piece is good. For too long race has kept us from moving forward. I would probably say for the last 50 yrs or so. It is one of the primary impediments of a free society. The last 18 months have proven this beyond a doubt. We have a affirmative action president and you can see the results. This is probably the main reason academia will not release any of his school records.

    Set aside programs have consequences. Obama is one of them. No one in Academia expected this to happen to one of their preferential students. Now he’s in the driver’s seat of the demolition derby called our economy.

    The next problem is that the set-aside programs will favor growing populations of minorities (read Mexicans) and with their birthrates, gobble up the entitlements (read Money) without being able to generate the income (read Your Taxes).

    Webb is just a runny pus canker sore. I believe the Virginans will do something about him very soon.

  • realskinny

    Macaque–pronounced Muh–kack—is the name of a species of monkey.

    Allen’s aides had been referring to the fellow following them around as “macaca” with the emphasis on “caca”. Allen picked it up from them.. All this crap about some word supposedly used in North Africa is just that—crap. I can’t believe anyone on RS is still spreading this garbage about Allen much less “channeling” Allen’s mother.

  • moderaterepub

    The fact that Webb can happily exist in a party alongside someone like Barbara Boxer without being called a scum sucking cockroach who needs to be crushed (thanks posters on Lindsay Graham) goes a long way to explaining how Democrats made such inroads in the Senate in the 06/08 elections or if you like.

    If Democrats had put up a nutroots candidate like Ned Lamont in VA they would have lost. Maybe when it comes to selecting candidates in remaining primaries you guys should consider backing candidates who represent the values of voters in their state and district, not just those who can get the backing of the new conservative elite/establishment.

  • JamesSmith130

    people are missing that he supports affirmative action for blacks only, just not for other minorities.

  • Scope

    Because the R Ruling Party in DC want only more that will help their ruling party, not the Country party. Thank you Dr. Codevilla for giving us such appropriate names for the rulers and the peasants.

  • drothgery

    … and some other statements by ‘moderate’ Dems (pushing back against letting the Bush tax cuts expire, most notably) are laying the groundwork for a possible party switch if the GOP ends up in control of the House and with 48 or 49 senators. Just because it didn’t work out for Specter doesn’t mean someone else couldn’t pull it off (I think some of the guys who switched parties in 1994 are still around).

  • Castor

    Oh what a tangled WEBB he weaved when first he practiced to deceive!

  • dog_nut

    and 33- 40% of them vote ‘R’ I believe. Most of them, I agree, have a lot in common with conservatives – gun rights, lower taxes, as they make good money, hunters, etc. I agree that the big inroads to be made is to distinguish between public & private sector unions.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
  • barleycorn

    From what I’ve been given to understand, he has not been fund-raising.

    I doubt his ego will let him take a chance on getting drubbed in a rematch with George Allen.

    Furthermore 2012 is not shaping up to be a good year to run as a Democrat in Virginia.

  • Scope

    Webb got in in the Democrat wave, he will be sent home in the Republican wave. Interesting that he is not fundraising, where did you get that info.? After his WSJ article, he will be as popular with the Dims as the Blue Dogs are. If Allen runs, and I do think he will, he will trounce Webb. Yipee, we get rid of another part of the Reid puppet show.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Good to know.

  • mbecker908

    He is not a “scum sucking cockroach”. He’s like five or six genetic iterations below that.

  • Achance

    awhile back, couple of years maybe. They keep reincarnating themselves.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Graham’s a much more reliable conservative than Jimmy Webb turned out to be.

  • IJB

    Genuine moderate Republicans are pretty easy to spot vs. “concern trolls”. This one reads like the latter, not the former.

  • mbecker908

    I wasn’t referring to his voting record, I was referring to his genetics.

    Sorry if that wasn’t clear.

  • Scope

    You said that Graham is a much more reliable conservative than Webb turned out to be. Do you mean Webb as a conservative Democrat? if any such animal exists. It sounds like you are considering Webb to be one of us, and some sort of conservative with a D after his name. Again, I am confused.

  • Scope

    He is a Republican for sure, but, a conservative? Doesn’t that further dilute the term conservative?

  • jonreagan

    The MSM is doing their best to ignore Webb’s piece…..acting as if somebody passed some really bad wind at a dinner party or something.

    On the other hand, if Jim DeMint or Tom Coburn had penned this op-ed piece, we’d be hearing all kinds of wailing today, about how the GOP had truly gone over a cliff, captive to racists and narrow-minded bigots.

    Truth is, this is conversation that is long overdue; having it will be good for the country, and can only play to conservatives’ advantage. But we couldn’t be the ones to begin it; now that Webb has opened the door, I’m hoping that some heavyweights on our side will walk right in.

    Liberals have been whining forever about the need to “have a conversation about race”. What they really want to talk about are things like reparations for slavery, or how to increase the cycle of dependency with some miserable new entitlement program.Now that one of their own has written about “the myth of white privilege”, and the need to end government diversity programs, liberals’ heads are about to explode.

    As big majorities of the electorate are sick of government affirmative action programs, this issue is a big winner for conservatives. Webb has been wrong on virtually all of his votes in the Senate, but he is right on this issue; good for him. To paraphrase President Reagan, we can get a lot of mileage out of this issue if we don’t care who gets the credit.

  • georgeinla

    But he’s a wimp for carving out an exception for blacks. Thank you very much Sen. Webb for thinking of us, but no thanks. Nearly all of the victims and perpetrators of slavery and segregation are long dead and gone, and it’s time for their descendants to get over it.