Today’s Washington Post speculates on the Vice-Presidential potential of Virginia’s junior Senator:
Just 10 months into his first term in elected office, James Webb found himself on the podium for one of the most coveted speaking slots in Democratic politics.
The freshman senator from Virginia delivered the keynote address to the New Hampshire Democratic Party at its annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner a week ago, a role that in recent years has been played by current and former White House candidates John Edwards and John F. Kerry. Two years ago the speech was delivered by Sen. Evan Bayh (Ind.), who is viewed as a potential vice presidential pick next year.
Webb’s role in the debate over Iraq and Iran has helped raise his profile far beyond that of the typical Senate newcomer. Webb is the only freshman Democrat to regularly attend Iraq strategy sessions in Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid’s office, and his proposal to extend home leaves for U.S. troops came closer to forcing a change in administration war policy than any other Democratic bill.
His upset of Sen. George Allen (R) last year and the prominent part he has taken in the congressional debate over Iraq have led to his being mentioned as a potential ticket-mate for the party’s nominee in 2008.
The idea, of course, being that a Virginian on the ticket could do something that has hasn’t happened since 1964 — deliver Virginia for the Democrats. Possible, I suppose, but Webb doesn’t strike me as the type of person who’d be the quiet VP that most Presidents hope for, and he hasn’t been reluctant to take stands opposed to those of his parties’ presumptive nominee:
On Oct. 18, Webb was one of five Democrats to help Republicans block a $1 million earmark for a Woodstock museum in Upstate New York, putting him at odds with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), one of the sponsors of the funding and the Democratic presidential front-runner. Webb’s official explanation was that the project already had plenty of private funding, which he viewed as the proper way to finance it, but it is hard to overlook that he was serving in Vietnam in 1969 at the time of the storied rock festival.
He also offered a sharp critique last month of a resolution urging that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps be designated as a terrorist organization, arguing that it would give President Bush an opening to seek war with Iran. Clinton supported that measure, and her vote has become a sore point on the campaign trail.
Not exactly the model of a loyal VEEP that one supposes that a future Empress President Hillary would want. And, as Presidential historian put it when talking about Webb:
“He’s an unguided missile. He would be too unpredictable.”
Yea, that about sums it up.
