Asked recently what he’ll be doing after his ‘retirement’
from the U.S. Senate, Jim Webb said, “I will be working. Trust me.”[1]
And so are the words of a man who has both pleased and vexed
his Democratic base in Virginia. But one thing that Sen. Webb never did was
adjust his principles to fit the political weather of the day. Whether or not
Webb’s policy positions were liked (or disliked), you could be sure that he was
acting in a manner he thought best for Virginia and the country as a whole.
For all of the policy disagreements I have had with Sen. Jim
Webb over his six years as U.S. Senator for Virginia, I can’t help but have
mixed feelings about his departure from the upper chamber, especially as
Virginia’s other U.S. Senator, Mark Warner, sounds more and more like an
amorphous chatterbox than a representative with unwavering principles.
As Webb exits from the political stage, however, his ‘capital’
as a fair-minded and principled politician will go a long way in shaping future
debates that he chooses to be an open part of.
In Webb’s own words, “Politics has never been my calling. Leadership
has always been my calling, from the time I was a little kid…Unpredictably,
political leadership has been a part of it – I’m not saying I’m done with that,
by the way.”[2]
In Webb, one is reminded of the reluctant citizen whose
calling to politics is spearheaded by a need to infuse the political system with
some semblance of virtue and principled leadership. As a U.S. Senator, he was
one of a handful of ‘good guys’ who spoke with a purpose other than political
ambition.
Sen. Webb is the kind of politician whose significance may
only be felt or known some years down the road when historians unravel Webb as
both an individual and a politician. Then, if not before, Americans will see a
man who strove to make America a better place, albeit in his own way.
I am not given to paying many people homage for doing their
job, especially someone who I have had my fair share of policy disagreements
with in the past. But in the case of Jim Webb, America is losing a true patriot
and a true fighter for a better America.
I know we haven’t seen the last of Mr. Webb and I hope that the
path Sen. Webb pursued in the senate will be one more politicians follow in the
years ahead (i.e., the path of principled leadership). In this brave new world,
America will still need principled individuals to lead us through the vast and
sometimes dangerous ocean of international and domestic politics.
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