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| LET'S SEND A FEW CRAZIES TO CONGRESS BY JHL
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J.M. Eddins Jr. (THE WASHINGTON TIMES)
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I met this guy not long ago who ran for the House of Representatives in an Illinois district. He lost bigtime, but said it was a good experience.
Why a good experience? Well, basically, he said it let him see the political system like one couldn't in any other way.
He now thought politics was corrupt, candidates never told the real truth, and there's almost no chance against an incumbent. Yes, this is old news and what we already know.
Recently, however, I did think of the conversation when I read an article about James H. Webb, the Democrat running against George Allen, Republican, for the U. S. Senate from Virginia.
In many ways, Webb sounds like my kind of guy. He tried to do some things as the Secretary of the Navy under Reagan, but quit in somewhat of a huff after eight months.
Webb has quit the Republican party twice and the Democratic party once; now there's flexibility. He's a Vietnam veteran which makes him attractive. He recently told his opponent to shut up during a debate. He has a short fuse and gets mad easily. I like his style. Hooah!
This Democratic candidate said he didn't wear a bridle well and that he was not a good bureaucrat. Those two things alone endear him to me as opposed to most congressmen who march in lockstep about issues that ought to be debated. And, not being a good bureaucrat definitely has my endorsement. Who doesn't hate bureaucracy?
Webb has got a couple of views not usually expressed by a Democrat which are surely not PC (politically correct), primarily about women at the Academies and their role in combat. At least he does not take a poll before he expresses his views. He basically believes that women in combat(which they are) serve well; but, in many ways, they simply change the mix. Combat is no time to figure out that men and women are different.
Webb is different. He's not singing the same tune and obviously brings to politics a petulant antagonism which is right on in my view. The last thing the country needs is more of the same.
My only concern with Webb is that he has violated the advice of one of my literary heroes, William Faulkner, who said something like, "A good man should never marry more than twice." Webb is on his third.
jhl
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