Posted on 11/19/2016 12:28:06 AM PST by Sontagged
Jim Webb is, at least in a nominal sense, a Democrat. Last year, he briefly pursued the Democratic nomination for president, a run best remembered for his joke about killing the Vietnamese soldier who threw a grenade at him.
Now Webb is singing Donald Trump’s praises, and may have his eye on a cabinet job. “I would like to salute Donald Trump for his tenacity and for the uniqueness of his campaign,” Webb during a speech to a hundred or so attendees at a foreign policy symposium in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
To hear Webb tell it, in fact, he tried to do what Trump did. “It took an outsider, whatever his wealth and lack of government experience, to tell the truth,” Webb said, before explaining that his own efforts in this regard were tripped up by his lack of wealth and an intransigent Democratic elite.
Conservative writer Bill Kauffmann floated Webb’s name as a possible cabinet pick in his introduction of the former Virginia senator. Later on, a questioner mentioned an “incredible rumor going around” that Webb might be offered secretary of defense, and asked whether he would accept the role. Webb did not answer the question.
It all had the look and feel of a trial balloon being launched. Here was Webb, with his sterling resume, laying out a vision of America’s vision in the world that roughly hewed with what Trump said on the campaign trail: Putting America first, minding our own business, avoiding foreign entanglements. And of course he had nothing but nice things to say about the president-elect, even though he declined to say whom he’d voted for.
He also spoke quite a bit about how Democrats left working class whites behind: “It made white working people their most convenient whipping posts, particularly white males.”
It was a message likely to resonate with the audience. The American Conservative, a right-wing publication with a dovish, populist bent, had put the symposium together. Founded in 2002 as a home for anti-war conservatives, it can in some sense be credited for providing the intellectual architecture of what we now think of as Trumpism.
Whether any of that architecture still interests Trump is another matter. Regardless, Webb’s resume is immaculate. He’s a graduate of Annapolis and of Georgetown Law. He’s a highly decorated war hero. He’s already been an assistant secretary of Defense, secretary of the Navy, and a U.S. Senator.
And he’s also an acclaimed author of ten books, including “Born Fighting,” his 2004 history of the Scotch-Irish people that was the “Hillbilly Elegy” of its time.
That resume didn’t serve him in his no-hope bid for the Democratic nomination last year. But it would likely make a Senate confirmation vote a breeze, and that fact alone could make a Webb nod tempting to Trump’s White House team.
John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani, two floated names for Trump’s secretary of State, could easily be stuck in confirmation hearings for months. (Sen. Rand Paul is already saying he’ll do anything possible to stop Bolton.)
Meanwhile, Steve Bannon’s elevation to White House strategist has already produced tremendous blowback. Possible Defense pick Gen. Michael Flynn could face trouble explaining some of his foreign ties. And getting an immigration hardliner like Kris Kobach or Jeff Sessions to a major post could be a hard-fought battle as well.
Not so with Webb, a known quantity that would likely appease both Trump fans and some detractors within Washington officialdom. It would also give Trump a Democrat in his cabinet. Cross-party moves like that tend to be attractive to presidents, and may be particularly so to an off-and-on Democrat like Trump.
It would also reassure supporters and critics alike that Trump has no intention of getting the U.S. into a war. Webb, unlike Trump, was an early and outspoken critic of the Iraq War, a position that launched his career in electoral politics. His non-interventionist bona fides are rock solid.
Webb’s big idea is that we need a “clear statement of national security interests.” He’s critical of NATO’s expansion to Russia’s borders, and said he feels humanitarian military adventures are deeply unwise. But first and foremost, we need a strategy that’s easily understood by enemies, allies, and the American people alike.
“Tell me what our national interest is, how we are going to defend it, how we will know we have accomplished our mission -- and if you can do that, you have a strategy,” he said. And in Webb’s version of that strategy, generally speaking, we’d be preoccupied to containing Chinese influence in Asia in lieu of wars of choice like the Libya intervention.
Regardless of what anyone makes of Webb’s pronouncements, he has the authority to make them, and could provide a degree of nuance to Trump’s foreign policy impulses. Whether the president-elect has any interest in that is another matter, but on the merits, a top job for Jim Webb would make a fair bit of sense.
© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Webb is a writer, vet, former VA Senator, worked for Reagan, looks like a great guy and a much more compelling pick for Trump's "team of rivals" as a moderate Dem than GOPe backstabbers or neocon hawks.
Had a dream about Jim Webb for Trump back in May. I wrote to a very smart cable news contributor/celeb GOPer I know about it then, when Trump was making up his mind about VP. The weird thing was, I'd never heard of Webb before (consciously) but I remembered the name when I woke up...
(Don't kid me for posting a dream; Lincoln put a lot of stock in dreams and it's what Peter quotes from the prophet Joel in Acts -- that God will give us dreams, etc.! Plus I just looked back over our private messages and I also dreamt Trump would win in a landslide back in Feb.!... Wish I remembered that dream on Nov 8, I completely forgot...)
I really just want to know what Freepers think about Webb for Trump.
Considering how scared the BushGOPe was when Kerry floated the idea of running with McCain in '04 (and they outpolled Bush/Cheney by 10 pts) and how Rove and company had to make the deal with McCain that they would help him run for Prez in '08 if McCain backed off the Kerry/McCain bipartisan ticket...
... considering how the GOPe/Uniparty Establishment hates bipartisan tickets because it exposes their collusion (Rove was nearly apoplectic when McCain floated Lieberman as VP in July '08)... I actually thought Trump/Webb would be an interesting bipartisan ticket before Trump picked Pence.
Republicans just won a landslide election with all branches of government for the first time in decades.
This is not the time to recruit anyone with a “D” after their name.
Americans didn’t vote for bipartisanship. They voted Republican.
It would be amazing, because it would COMPLETELY p*** off the left, but I’m thinking it’ll be Mattis. Duncan Hunter is my dark horse pick for the job.
NO. A loose cannon, IMO.
NO. A loose cannon, IMO.
Interesting. All I know is I did dream about this guy, and as the article states, he’d have no problem being confirmed.
I also like the fact he’s a writer. But you have a great point.
Webb said he’d back Trump over Hillary back in May. Reagan Dem who worked for Reagan.
Do you know anything in particular about him? I really know nothing except on his Twitter page and this article.
It is going to be Mad Dog Mattis.
Reagan correctly fired him from his job as Secretary of the Navy for incompetence. President Ronald Reagan wrote: “I don't think Navy was sorry to see him go.”
After that, Webb worked his way up in the corrupt Democrat Party.
In 2006, running for the Senate, Webb's operatives videotaped all of Republican opponent Allen’s speeches.
In on appearance, Allen was taunted into calling a Webb operative a “macaca”.
Webb, the Washington Post and the rest of the liberal media used this one incident to dishonestly attack Allen.
In the same campaign, Webb falsely claimed to be endorsed by Reagan who had fired him. Webb released a television advertisement, which included footage of a 1985 speech by Ronald Reagan that praised Webb's service as a Marine. The next day, the Chief of Staff for the Reagan Library wrote Webb's campaign on behalf of former first lady Nancy Reagan, urging them not to air the advertisement saying it was neither fair nor respectful because it gave the impression of an endorsement. The Webb campaign continued to run the dishonest ad.
Webb pretends to be patriotic and pro military when it suits his purpose.
Webb endorsed John Kerry in 2004. Like Kerry, Webb dishonestly plays on his military experience.
Webb tried to run for president as a Democrat in 2016. He failed miserably and quickly dropped out. He was probably just trying to become Clinton's VP nominee.
Trump should have nothing to do with this lying slime ball.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
Running as a candidate in the democrat primary is a career limiting lapse of judgement if you ask me.
Okay, thank you for the information. If Reagan fired him and it wasn’t some sort of GOPe HW Bush set-up, that’s settles it. I vaguely remember the videotaping of Allen (actually here on FR)
Here, Jack Posobiec, this guy at Citizens4Trump, who apparently got the Paul Ryan coup on Trump correct: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/10/explosive-revelation-gop-coup-attempt-jack-posobiec-yourvoice-radio-video/
This guy Posobiec is saying everywhere that Webb is a good idea for SECDEF.
NO!!!! He’s insane!!! How could anyone SANE be a DEMOCRAT today?
He’s reportedly switching to Independent. And backed Trump months ago.
But Freepers here are very convincing...
Tough...Republican, Democrat. Independent.....he’s a reed in the wind.....not stable enough.
This article shows how out of touch & irrelevant CBS news has become. Webb is a dead political entity who couldn’t win a dog catcher race. Mattis has the job.
Webb is not reliable personality wise. Too unpredictable in his political positions.
His military service was extensive and brave, but his political service and ideas have been eratic/not consistent.
This is no time to bring in someone like that. The next few years are going to be key to the survival of America with the rising Russian and Red Chinese, Iran and No. Korean threats.
We need a George S. Patton, not a Dick Patten.
Dick Van Patten for Secretary of Defense and Dick Van Dyke for Secretary of State?
We’re looking for a few good Dick Vans.
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