Redstate

Posted at 5:17am on Jun. 30, 2008 Jim Webb Pulls a Pelosi

By Erick

I have an article up at Human Events on just how low Jim Webb (D-VA) has sunk in the Senate.

He has holds on four appointees to the Pentagon. Why? Well, he claims the holds are related to wanting questions on Blackwater Worldwide from the Pentagon. But he's received those answers and still won't release the holds.

So why are the holds really there?

Sen. Webb is expected to travel on a tax-payer funded junket to Southeast Asia. He wants both his wife and his 18 month old child to accompany him without having to pay reimbursement to the government. Unfortunately, according to a March 9, 2007, letter from Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), while spouses are permitted to go with the Senator, “relatives of Senators (other than spouses) will not be permitted to travel with Senate delegations.”

You can read the whole article here.

Posted in Congress | Jim Webb | Virginia — Comments (4)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:12pm on May 23, 2008 REDSTATE ROUNDTABLE #10: The Democratic Veepstakes

Who Will Sit At Obama's Right Hand?

By Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin: Let's open the floor: assuming Obama hangs on to claim the Democratic nomination, who will he pick as his running mate? Who should he pick?

Obama's problem is that for all his strengths as a candidate, he's got a bunch of conflicting vulnerabilities - he lacks national security credibility and executive experience; he has no military record; he's been weak with white working-class voters; he's a relatively inexperienced politician; some women will want a woman on the ticket to soothe the sense that Hillary got passed over; he also wants to appeal to Latino voters, but a female or Latino running mate might be too much to swallow for a lot of white male voters. Not only is that a long list, but the identity-politics pitfalls mean it's a contradictory one.

Read On for the rest of the roundtable...

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Bill Richardson | Jim Webb | Redstate Roundtable | Veepstakes — Comments (42)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:13pm on May 21, 2008 Nutroot Fun in the Old Dominion: Raising Kaine to be Raising Webb?

By Ben Domenech

I won't link there, but you can read about it over at Virginia Virtucon: the thumbnail version? Raising Kaine, the Virginia equivalent of the Daily Kos, is so maddened by Kaine's endorsement of Gerry Connolly in the race to replace Tom Davis that they've actually renamed themselves to just "RK."

What's so bad about Connolly, who from all appearances has a much easier path to victory than the rabid liberal Leslie Byrne (endorsed by Jim Webb)? Why, Connolly's a war profiteer, so Tim Kaine has 'blood drenched hands.'

Kaine is still too much of a stable, sane politician to be a hero for the Nutroots in the longterm, I think. They'd be a lot better off in the long term with Raising Webb as their name. And you'd be better off using this as an opportunity to throw a little love Keith Fimian's way.

This is going to be so much fun if Obama picks Webb. If you don't live in Virginia, you have no idea.