The new face of the Democrats

The new face of the Democrats

If you're looking for the new face of the Democratic Party, look at Jim Webb. No one symbolizes the new class of Democrats better than this junior senator from Virginia.

A political junkie would have known of Webb for some time, since he's a prolific author who served as Secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration. Most people, though, were probably introduced to him this past fall when he challenged George Allen (then considered a top prospect for the GOP nomination in 2008) for his Senate seat.

Originally a heavy favorite for reelection, Allen ran one of the worst campaigns in recent memory; the low point had to be when he used a racial slur against a Webb operative who was - I kid you not - videotaping him.

Webb took advantage of Allen's missteps and picked up a crucial seat for the Democrats. It wasn't long before Webb returned to the national press.

This time it was because of a meeting with President George W. Bush. At a White House reception for newly-elected members of Congress, Webb "tried to avoid President Bush," refusing to greet him in the reception line or have his picture taken with the president, reported The Washington Post.

When Bush asked Webb, whose son is a marine in Iraq, "How's your boy?" Webb replied, "I'd like to get them out of Iraq." When the president asked again, Webb replied, "That's between me and my boy." Webb later 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."

As usual with Webb, the reaction was deeply divided. Some praised his move as a bold show of defiance. Others, like the columnist George F. Will, dismissed Webb as "a boor."

Then there was last week's State of the Union rebuttal. In contrast to Bush's anemic address, Webb was sharp and focused - something Democrats haven't been in some time.

Though he made some small missteps, like claiming "this is the seventh time the president has mentioned energy independence in a state of the union address" when this was the sixth such Bush address, Webb was on point.

With a novelist's flair he produced a picture of his pilot father (who participated in the Berlin airlift) in discussing what the nation's leaders owe to the military. Like many Democrats elected with him, Webb seems more like a disaffected Republican than a Nancy Pelosi liberal. Webb's speech was muscular and tough.

Throughout the course of it, he quoted Andrew Jackson, Dwight Eisenhower and - most revealingly - Theodore, not Franklin, Roosevelt. He also managed to speak eloquently of his own military service in Vietnam without sounding "Kerryesque." The New Republic's Michael Crowley suggested that the response could "do for Webb something akin to what Barack Obama's 2004 convention speech did for the Illinois senator.

Maybe not on quite the same scale. But I can't think of another Democratic speech since Obama's that was half as good."

Probably not. Obama's speech catapulted him into presidential consideration, but Webb won't figure much into the upcoming race.

It's unlikely that he would attempt a run, and, like John McCain, he's the sort of guy who would never work as number two on a ticket. Down the line he might consider a White House bid, but Webb's out of step with a lot of Democrats on key issues.

So Webb will stay in the Senate, at least for the next few years. If his short political history is any guide, though, at least he'll make things interesting.

Correction: In my Jan. 22 column, I wrote that the "American obsession with ranking leaders goes back at least as far as 1948, when Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., asked his fellow historians to grade presidential greatness." In fact, it was Arthur Schlesinger, Sr., who conducted this poll.

Andrew Buttaro is a Heights staff columist. He welcomes comments at buttaroa@bcheights.com.