"Master of the Senate"

Reihan Salam (The Current-The Atlantic):

A Jim Webb-sponsored proposal to expand education benefits for veterans was passed by the Senate as part of the latest Iraq War spending bill.

As Barack Obama considers his vice presidential options, he would be very wise to take Jim Webb seriously. By now the idea that Webb could help Obama connect with the Scots-Irish voters of Greater Appalachia is familiar to most of those who follow the presidential horse race. And Webb's military experience, together with his years in Ronald Reagan's Pentagon, give him national security expertise that few leading Democrats can match. Yet there is another reason the Virginia Senator would make an excellent vice presidential nominee. As he's demonstrated this week, Webb can be a masterful legislative tactician.

Though no one will ever mistake Webb for a gladhanding backslapper, he has mobilized an extraordinary coalition of Democrats and Republicans behind a dramatic expansion of veterans' educational benefits. After passing by an overwhelming margin in the House, Webb's Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act won 75 votes in the Senate. Because the measure was attached to the Democrats' Iraq War spending bill, which included a number of other spending proposals favored by Democrats and opposed by the Bush White House, there is good reason to believe that the entire package will be vetoed. But there is also good reason to believe that something like Webb's proposal will eventually be made law, thanks in no small part to the measure's overwhelming popularity among veterans and military families.

Moreoever, the popularity of Webb's "new GI Bill" has put John McCain in an extraordinarily awkward spot. McCain, along with Lindsey Graham, Richard Burr, and other senators known for their hawkish credentials, opposed Webb's proposal on the grounds that it would undermine the military's efforts to retain personnel; in its place, they proposed an educational benefit that became more generous the longer an individual service member served. (When Obama criticized McCain for opposing the Webb proposal, McCain responded angrily, accusing Obama of demagoguing a complex issue.) But whether or not McCain and his allies were right on the merits -- it is by no means obvious that they were not -- there is no denying that the Virginia Senator has successfully maneuvered the presumptive Republican nominee into the profoundly unpopular position of being against a measure designed to honor the service and the sacrifice of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Can Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius say the same thing? Or Ohio Governor Ted Strickland? Former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn has been praised for his national security expertise. But did he resign from the Reagan-era Pentagon, as Webb did, after resisting orders to downsize the Navy?

The question is no longer whether Barack Obama should select Jim Webb as his nominee. It is whether he can justify not doing so. Even if Webb murdered someone in an alleyway in a fit of pique or been paid vast sums by the Chinese Politburo for detailed intelligence about American naval vessels, he would still be a far stronger and more appealing vice presidential nominee than Hillary Clinton.

Howie P.S.: That last sentence is over-the-top, especially after the events of the last two days.

Barack Obama