Webb Gains Backing of Several Key Democrats

Webb Gains Backing of Several Key Democrats
Party Hopes to Unseat Allen in November

By Michael D. Shear and Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 11, 2006; Page B05

Senate Democratic Leader Harry M. Reid and other top Democrats yesterday announced their support for Senate candidate James Webb, signaling the national party's growing belief that the antiwar crusader and former Navy secretary is the party's best bet against Republican incumbent George Allen in Virginia.

Webb is fighting for the Democratic nomination against former technology lobbyist Harris Miller in the June 13 primary, the kind of race that national party officials usually stay out of. But Webb, a former Republican and an early critic of the Iraq war, is attracting national attention as someone who could spoil Allen's plans for an easy reelection in November and a presidential bid in 2008.

"He is a unique candidate who can both clearly articulate Democratic values and compel voters across all demographics to vote Democrat," Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) said in a statement.

The difference between Webb, who is making his first venture into Virginia Democratic politics, and Miller, a party loyalist who for six years headed the Fairfax County Democrats, has been crystallized in recent endorsement announcements.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/10/AR2006051002267.html

OK, OK, I'll agree that James Webb is not a long-time progressive. In fact, he was in Ronald Wilson What's-His-Name's cabinet. On the other hand, his heart's in the right place and he's closer to Wes Clarke than he is to Donald Rumsfeld and the other neo-con mandarins making a hash of things. But if Webb can beat George Allen, it would go a good way toward fracturing the Republican mythos surrounding the current crop of Banana Republicans and be a thoroughly satisfying counter-image to those disgusting displays the GOP "treated" the rest of us to back in the 1980's and 1990's by showing all those Dixiecrats turning Republican.