A link to this article was only recently posted, but it was a good interview and is worth a second look:
http://www.signonsan...

This is the second time I've read the article, the first being when I was deciding whether to throw in with the campaign or not. The significant thing is the consistency in Webb's policy positions.  He didn't shift at all over the course of the election year.  Another significant thing is how he puts his finger on the real problem with Iraq, which is strategic and not tactical or involving military competence.  Our military is an extraordinarily competent tactical tool, but without the right strategy it's like putting a non-driver behind the wheel of a high performance vehicle.  You're going to hit a lot of pedestrians and run a lot of red lights and in the end you're going to wreck the car.

I was extremely pleased to hear Senator Webb(!) quoted this morning as saying that the new Senate should rule on Gates as the SecDef.  He's not going to sit on the back bench and wait for permission to speak.  I also noted Senator Warner's warm welcome to Senator Webb.  Can't say he looks all that broken up over Allen's departure.

are a sort of crutch that the media oftentimes uses so that they don't have to bother with subtleties of any sort.

I agree with a lot of your analysis.  And in addition to this, I would argue that he is the sort of person who will tend to vote his conscious and not fall neatly in line behind party leadership.  We may find that frustrating from time to time, but I doubt that I will be disappointed by anything he says or does.

Back in June, before the Democratic primary, Jim Webb visited Charlottesville, and was grilled by Democratic activists from central VA.  Our congressman, Virgil Goode, was once a Democrat, and went over to the dark side to get a seat on the Appropriations committee, so this group was suspicious. Under pressure, Jim outlined his philosophy, and gave background details.  The 9m59s video linked below is titled "Is Jim Webb *really* a Democrat?"; judge for yourself:

"I'm a realist on foreign policy, a moderate on social policy, and a populist on economic policy. . . .  I'm an Andrew Jackson/Harry Truman Democrat. . . .  What I want to do is bring people back to the Democratic Party."

He is; and he has; and we're lucky to have him.

--thanks for reposting it here.

Jim fits in no one's box.  That's a large part of why I respect him so much.  His integrity--being true to what he deeply believes--is and always has been uncompromising.  That's why he'll make a great senator.

I don't agree with him on everything.  But he gets the big things right: the folly of the war and the attitudes that bred it, the injustice of our domestic economic situation, the danger of the Bush definition of the presidency.  (And, I would add, global warming, which I am confident Jim understands far better than George Allen ever could have.)

And he's going to be the prime example of a kind of Democrat the party has lacked at the national level for far too long:  a passionately engaged, deeply informed, utterly credible leader on defense policy.

Jim will serve Virginia by acting from the right root principles and exemplifying political integrity.  What more could we ask?

Yes, he will vote with the Republicans sometimes.  He will vote with the Dems sometimes.  He will vote with whoever he thinks is right.  That's why I trust Jim Webb.  It's not about politics, it's about what's right.

Jim Webb was just on Lou Dobbs...man is he going to be one kick ass Senator...I know fer sure there are TONS of Americans out there who think like he does exactly.

He's SO AWESOME!!!!  I was actually working on multiple campaigns but focused on this one primarily at the end and I'm SOOOO glad I did!

He is AWESOME!!!!

When we started this general election campaign, we were facing an opponent with tens of millions of dollars. He had won two statewide races already. He had the power of incumbency on his side, and also the awesome power that comes with the backing of an incumbent President.  We had, at the moment, not a lot of money, a candidate who had never run for office, and 2,500 rag-tag rebels who had volunteered for what many thought was a hopeless, quixotic journey.

At that time, I said:

I like those odds, actually.  It'll make us all work a little harder.  It fits with one of my favorite films, Cool Hand Luke -- one of the great lines in that movie: "Sometimes nothing is a pretty cool hand!"

On Tuesday, against huge odds, you carried our campaign to victory, and I cannot express how grateful I am to you for helping us make history in this election.

As you know, I made two promises to myself when I started this campaign.  The first was that I was not going to trade anything I believed in order to get a vote or a dollar, and I did that. I’m walking into the U.S. Senate with the independence to represent the people who have no voice in the corridors of power, and I intend to do that.

The second promise that I made was that as much as humanly possible, we were not going to run a negative campaign.  And I thank all of you for helping me to make sure that we did that.

We have a situation in Virginia where Mark Warner began a journey. Tim Kaine has added on to it. We are going to add onto it even more.  We’re going to work hard to bring a sense of responsibility to our foreign policy that will, in my view, result soon in a diplomatic solution in Iraq.  We’re going to work very hard on issues of economic fairness in a country that has become divided too much by class in an age of the internationalization of corporate America, where corporate profits are at an all time high while wages and salaries are at an all time low.  I look forward to joining my fellow Senators in voting very soon to increase the minimum wage.

And finally, we’ve had a situation where, as a result of this Administration’s policies post-9/11, we’ve had far too much power gravitate to the Presidency at the expense of the power of the Legislature. 

With your help, we now have the opportunity to put this country back on the track where it needs to be. Thank you for everything you have done for our campaign and our country.

Remember, folks: the Revolution started here...

Catzmaw
LOVE the car analogy. Perfect description for where we are/hopefully were heading.