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SkinsHokieFan
February-11th-2010, 11:38 AM
This is again why VA is a pretty good state. We have smart Dems here also :ols:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/dem_saying_no_538OoUUq1p2rwjDF0usyXM


A Dem saying 'No'
By JOHN J. MILLER
Last Updated: 8:46 AM, February 11, 2010
Posted: 1:06 AM, February 11, 2010
Sen. James Webb wrote six novels before he tried his hand at nonfiction. His 2004 history of the Scots-Irish in America owns a memorable name: "Born Fighting."

The Virginia Democrat might have saved the title for his memoirs: The man who once battled his way through the jungles of Vietnam has become an influential political warrior in Washington, to the sudden consternation of President Obama.

In recent weeks, Webb has fought the White House on several policy fronts, from deployments in Afghanistan to the prosecution of terrorists.

Webb was arguably the first Democratic senator to come to grips with his party's disastrous defeat in Massachusetts. On the night that Massachusetts voters elected Republican Scott Brown as the late Ted Kennedy's successor, Webb urged the suspension of health-care votes until Brown joins the Senate. If the Obama administration had entertained any thoughts of rushing its "reform" through Congress before Brown's arrival, Webb effectively snuffed them out.

He arguably did the White House a big favor, as the public almost certainly wouldn't have tolerated such a desperate maneuver. Yet Webb was probably more concerned about his own political future.

On Dec. 24, he had voted for ObamaCare -- complete with Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson's notorious Cornhusker Kickback. The stunning result in Massachusetts may have provided Webb with the wake-up call he should have heard more than two months earlier.

In November, Virginians turned out in droves to elect Bob McDonnell, a Republican, as their governor. Democrats had enjoyed a string of statewide victories, including Webb's upset in 2006 against Sen. George Allen (a Republican who had harbored presidential ambitions). But now Webb's party was confronting a serious setback.

When Webb called for a moratorium on health-care votes, he wasn't appeasing Brown's Bay State backers. He was trying to respect the mood of his own constituents.

Teller
February-11th-2010, 11:42 AM
Virginia is a fascinating state politically; almost a complete cross-section of the country. That being the case, you end up with democrats having to appease conservatives, and republicans having to do business with democrats. (I know that's a gross oversimplification, but you know what I mean.)

The bottom line is that if you want to know how national politics are going to trend, keep a very close eye on Virginia.

Midnight Judges
February-11th-2010, 11:45 AM
The narrative doesn't really make sense seeing as how he voted for the healthcare bill after Bob McDonnel was elected.

Seems to me Webb gave a nice tip 'o the hat to the right while sacrificing precisely nothing.

SkinsHokieFan
February-11th-2010, 11:47 AM
The narrative doesn't really make sense seeing as how he voted for the healthcare bill after Bob McDonnel was elected.

Seems to me Webb gave a nice tip 'o the hat to the right while sacrificing precisely nothing.

I think quite a few people (and rightly so in my opinion) pinned the McDonell win as partly a result of the bumbling incompetent campaign of Creigh Deeds and past historical trends in VA

Scott Brown winning Ted Kennedy's seat was a political earthquake, regardless of the campaign that Coakley ran, which is why Senator Webb was one of the first to respond that night in talking about the health care vote