Thursday, December 27, 2012

Jim Webb’s exit from the senate won’t be a resignation from public life altogether


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.   



[1] http://hamptonroads.com/2012/12/webb-reflects-his-time-us-senate
[2] http://hamptonroads.com/2012/12/webb-reflects-his-time-us-senate

No comments:

Post a Comment