Reply #34: But it was not just the "personal values" with Webb, [View All]

[karynnj]

(I do agree with you that fighting to get more resources for your "group" is the real motive in most politics.)

Webb voted against an amendment by Kerry and Feingold (to a Boxer water bill) that required the Corps of Engineers to consider the impact of global warming in all their projects rather than guarding only against 50 year and 100 year water levels - because, even with everything that already has happened , future years will be higher. (Some argued the Corps would do that anyway - but given that logic, NJ and other states should take the rule that you have to stop at a red light out, because people know that is the prudent (as well as legal) thing to do.

He also voted for FISA, each and every time it was voted - including the Dodd amendment that prohibited giving retroactive immunity to the telcos. This was really an amendment to protect the Bush administration.

As to economic issues, under Bush, what progressive measures could conceivably pass were so centrist - that there were no Democrats against them. It will be interesting to see what he is for in a Congress with large Democratic majorities.

(If he is really good - I might even be able to ignore his blind spot on Vietnam. It bothers me that he is not like Chuck Hagel, who eventually came to accept that it was a policy disaster, continued long after that was clear. Why, because it indicates that if he is involved and committed to a mistake, he is unlikely to be able to step back from it and say it was a mistake.)

All I know is that if any of the center left Democrats had his record, they would have multiple threads against them. I understand that he does represent VA, but some of the support he gets is really grading on a curve.