Katrina vanden Heuvel: Jim Webb's Time to Fight

[babylonsister]

Jim Webb's Time to Fight
posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 05/19/2008 @ 11:55pm


Jim Webb can make the Four Seasons seem like a diner in Owensboro, Kentucky. It's that kind of blue-collar street cred that may be just what it takes to propel the first term Senator from Virginia onto the Democratic ticket as Vice-President.

On Monday night, at a party for his latest book, " A Time to Fight: Reclaiming a Fair and Just America," the first term Senator from Virginia filled the dining citadel of elitism with a spirited mix of active duty and retired Marines and New York's media glitterati. After he said a few words, Webb remained at the made-for-the occasion podium--as if he were campaigning--and took questions.

Ronald Reagan's former Secretary of the Navy has refocused the warrior ambition that made him the most highly decorated Vietnam -era Marine from his Naval Academy into a passionate, progressive and patriotic populism. When asked tonight, by the New Yorker's Rick Hertzberg, what he thought of those who opposed the Vietnam war, Webb said "I never had a problem with those who properly opposed the war. I had a problem with the way vets were treated when they got home." He explained that as the young vet and author of "Fields of Fire," the classic novel of the Vietnam War, "I inherited the obligation to articulate the conclusions of those who served." And in that, he suggested, lay the seeds of anger and bitterness toward opponents of a war he had served in...passions which have ebbed and subdued as he has witnessed the disaster of Iraq.

Monday night, as other nights, most notably the January night in 2007 when Webb delivered the most devastating Democratic State of the Union reply in modern memory, the Senator used his bully pulpit to rip into a Republican Administration that has shafted the men and women it sent into an unecessary war by denying them the benefits they deserve and for allowing this country, as he told me, to "calcify along class lines." When I asked what he would do to make the people who lived up and down the street we were on, Park Avenue, contribute to reclaiming a fair and just America, Webb spoke forcefully of ending a system "in which the average corporate CEO now makes nearly 400 times more than what an average worker does. " When "I graduated from college," he told me, "the average CEO made 20 times what the average worker did." As Webb fielded questions, with his young Vietnamese wife close by,--he even repeated questions when they weren't clear ("a technique of military instruction," he joked)-- he denounced the inequities of system which takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day.

When asked if he'd consider being a Vice-Presidential candidate on an Obama ticket, Webb's non-reply--" I like being a Senator" -- --suggested to me that he's ready to rumble. And his media blitz these last few days --Meet the Press, Late Show With Letterman, Olbermann and Dobbs tomorrow--second that emotion.

more...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/322265

[Faygo Kid]

1. There's a lot to like about Webb, not least of which is he is one tough senator.

He wouldn't be afraid to mix it up with any Repuke any time. He's got the military credentials for sure. He's from a state that could turn from Red to Blue. He's tough and smart.

On the downside, his record on women's issues is mixed at best. He's a first-term senator (but with long experience in government - Secretary of the Navy under Reagan, which is both good and bad). But Katrina likes him, which is a big plus. Right now, he's my top candidate.

[babylonsister]

3. I like a lot of things about him, too, all of which you've mentioned.

His thrice-married might also bother some, but he's supposedly been grooming himself for the job. We shall see!

[mod mom]

2. My husband just ordered his book for me. I think he would be an excellent compliment to Obama!

[babylonsister]

4. The novel? I'd be very curious to know what you think of it. I haven't

read it, but would like to. Pls. keep me posted! And yes, I think he'd be a big compliment; he's impressed me a lot.

[mod mom]

5. Not novel but "Time to Fight" synopsis:

Synopsis
“I’m the only person in the history of Virginia elected to statewide office with a Union card, two Purple Hearts, and three tattoos."

Jim Webb—the bestselling author and now the celebrated, outspoken U.S. Senator from Virginia—presents a clear-eyed, hard-hitting plan of attack for putting government to work for the people, rather than special interests, and for restoring the country's standing around the world.

Infused with the intelligence, force, and firebrand style that has earned Senator Jim Webb enormous national attention from his earlest days in office, A Time to Fight offers a thorough and provocative assessment of the thorniest issues Americans face today, along with cogent solutions drawn from Webb's lifetime of experience as a much-decorated Marine, a widely traveled, award-winning journalist and novelist, a highly placed member of the Reagan administration, a Senator with a son who fought as a Marine in Iraq and, perhaps most important, a proud scion of America's vast but frequently ignored working class.

Webb exposes how America has entered a dangerous, unprecedented cycle of seemingly unsolvable unknowns. Our economic policies, particularly in this age of globalization, have produced widely divergent results leading to a country calcifying along class lines. Our demographic makeup has been altered dramatically and is set to keep on changing, through both legal and illegal immigration. Our editorialists and politicians talk about the American dream, and some urge us to bring democracy to the rest of the world. But more than two million Americans are now in prison, by far the highest incarceration rate in theso-called advanced world. Our foreign policy is confused, without clear direction; increasingly vulnerable to such largely unexamined long-term threats as China's emerging power while it has become bogged down in the never-ending struggles of the Middle East. As this drift toward societal regression has taken place, America's leadership has largely been paralyzed, unable or unwilling to stop the slide. "Where are the leaders?" Webb asks. "Has our political process become so compromised by powerful interest groups and the threat of character assassination that even the best among us will not dare to speak honestly about the solutions that might bring us back to common sense and fundamental fairness?"

Through vivid personal narratives of the struggles members of his family faced, and citing the courageous actions of presidents ranging from Andrew Jackson to Teddy Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower, A Time to Fight provides specific, viable ideas for restoring fairness to our economic system, correcting the direction of national security efforts, ending America's military occupation of Iraq, and developing greater government accountability. Webb brings a fresh perspective to political dynamics that have shaped our country. His stirring, populist manifesto calls upon voters to make the choices that will change America for the better in this election season.