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Jim Webb to Sec/Def?

Rexedgar

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There are reports that Jim Webb is under consideration to replace Gen. Mattis at the Pentagon. I was interested when Webb was exploring a POTUS run in 2014/15. I was a supporter until he would not pin down exactly what he was for and continued to ask for money.

Chuck Hagel was of similar interest when he was a Senator from Nebraska. Returning after a number of years to serve as Sec/Def, he had lost some of his appeal.

Hagel served as an enlisted man in Viet Nam and Webb was a Marine officer awarded the Navy Cross.



Webb seems to be a strange pick by the Trump Administration.

Webb was openly hostile to 43.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2008/02/01/jim-webb-no-more-combat-boots/

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/03/jim-webb-defense-secretary-1060169
 
Why anyone with any integrity would want to work for the imbecile in chief that will make a fool out of those that work for him is beyond me. I just don't get it .
 
There are reports that Jim Webb is under consideration to replace Gen. Mattis at the Pentagon. I was interested when Webb was exploring a POTUS run in 2014/15. I was a supporter until he would not pin down exactly what he was for and continued to ask for money.

Chuck Hagel was of similar interest when he was a Senator from Nebraska. Returning after a number of years to serve as Sec/Def, he had lost some of his appeal.

Hagel served as an enlisted man in Viet Nam and Webb was a Marine officer awarded the Navy Cross.



Webb seems to be a strange pick by the Trump Administration.

Webb was openly hostile to 43.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2008/02/01/jim-webb-no-more-combat-boots/

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/03/jim-webb-defense-secretary-1060169

Why anyone with any integrity would want to work for the imbecile in chief that will make a fool out of those that work for him is beyond me. I just don't get it .

While true, we do need an adult in the room. So the question remains...Do we give Webb the benefit of the doubt? Trump seems to have a way of forcing people to say his talking points when they work with him or at least expose that they agree with most of them...
 
Webb has a certain following as a Marine LT in Vietnam and an author since to include some ideologically strident right wing writings that didn't hurt him in his campaign for senate in Virginia. Webb's apologies to women especially might not get him through senate confirmation these days if Webb were to be Trump's choice....


However, some who know Webb are skeptical he would be a good fit. While he would have the experience for the job, they say he also has an independent streak.

“There are a lot of advantages out of that, but there is also a big danger,” said Jim Hanson, president of the Security Studies Group. “Webb’s an arrogant bastard. That doesn’t always work. [Rex] Tillerson was also an arrogant bastard.” “Trump needs an ally. Tillerson and Mattis both didn’t agree with him on his foreign policy agenda. They were almost the opposition to Trump. He needs someone who isn’t going to fight him on things,” he added.

James Carafano, vice president of the Heritage Foundation’s Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute who served as an adviser on the Trump transition team, also recommended that the president choose someone onboard with his agenda. “We’ve already seen what happens when you pick someone who’s not really a team player. You can’t do that on Defense, you can’t do that on State. Maybe you can do that on some agency somewhere, but not on the two most key critical cabinet posts,” he said.

Frank Gaffney, president and CEO of the Center for Security Policy, agreed. “The president cannot run the whole government. He has to delegate, and he has to delegate to people he trusts to run the departments the way he would run them if he could run them all,” he said. “And if you’ve got people who have a lot of interesting skill sets, but won’t do what he wants done, it’s a formula for a disastrous administration."


https://causeaction.com/2019/01/04/trump-allies-rally-around-jim-webb-for-next-defense-secretary/


These guys who are concerned Jim Webb is strictly independent seem to have missed that the administration is already a disaster packed full of grifters and personal loyalists of Trump. The fear these guys are expressing is that despite certain commonalities of views between Trump and Webb, Jim Webb would be even more direct with Trump than Mattis was or could be.

The key is whether Trump would give a secdef Webb the same autonomy over Pentagon as he gave to Mattis. Trump might do that because Jim Webb as secdef would not be a giant of the senate or of the armed forces. Webb is rather an author who has strong views and a following to include one term in the senate and a tour as a Marine in Vietnam where he got blown up. It's reasonable to think Trump could see Webb fitting in as a bit player. And Webb appeals to Trump as another guy who throws bombs wherever he is.
 
That is a move I would support.
 
I want Webb to run for President again. He could easily beat Trump.
 
So it seems Webb would be more supportive of Trump's populist nationalist isolationist foreign policy. Guess that makes sense to get a guy who is on board. Be fun to see how the GOP takes a Ron Paul turn when spurning him so many years ago.
 
I want Webb to run for President again. He could easily beat Trump.

Is this a toungue-in-cheek response? Webb announced in JUL15 and withdrew in OCT15. Not certain i would call that a”run.”
 
Is this a toungue-in-cheek response? Webb announced in JUL15 and withdrew in OCT15. Not certain i would call that a”run.”

He had no support from the Democratic Party; no, I would have preferred Webb over every candidate either party has put forth for the last 20 years.
 
He had no support from the Democratic Party; no, I would have preferred Webb over every candidate either party has put forth for the last 20 years.

I was a supporter, as well. All I got were requests for funds and I didn’t get the same vibe as when Webb was SEC/Nav and Senator from Va.

If he gets nominated @Def. the nomination will be worth paying attention to, as well as if he is confirmed.
 
While true, we do need an adult in the room. So the question remains...Do we give Webb the benefit of the doubt?

I certainly shall, NeverTrumpGOP. Webb is basically destroying whatever chance of a future political career he would have had by working with the Trump administration, which indicates one of two possible motivations to me. Motivation 1: the man is totally unscrupulous and without any principles whatsoever. Unlikely, but nevertheless possible. Motivation 2: He genuinely believes what he is doing is best for the country and the nation's defense, and when called, he answers, despite how horrible he thinks his boss will be. That he is thinking of the good of the nation, rather than the palatability of his leader seems to me to be the most likely motivation.
 
It seems the consensus with Trump's people in WH is that Webb's record of contentious independence would reestablish to the public the Firewall that collapsed when Mattis quit and told Trump what he could do with the job. Webb however still has scars from resigning as SecNavy after only ten months. And we see in scrolling that the establishment right wingers want a new yes man in OSD. Two years ago Webb would have pole vaulted over the Potomac if asked but given the number of MIA in the Trump administration Jim Webb might want assurances he can't get.

Jim is an Annapolis grad where the global Navy has dominated the philosophy and curriculum since the turn of the 20th century. That is when Adm. Mahan configured the USN that won WW II. The vital importance of sea lanes for trade, commerce, communication, security and all. The Academy has since said Mahan and Neptune in the same breath. Jim Webb has that bond and went Marines where he didn't like what he saw and experienced on foreign lands.

So Jim Webb has some criteria about that. A measuring stick as it were that might change the ways things haven't been getting done. And perhaps to preclude any further disasters that have been occurring. As to China, Mattis was firm but Webb rather sees a dragon that needs slaying. Webb's weak area would be Nato which was a Mattis strength.

Meanwhile the tug of war over this in Washington continues so we'll just have to pull out the ol' harmonica and wait.
 
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I certainly shall, NeverTrumpGOP. Webb is basically destroying whatever chance of a future political career he would have had by working with the Trump administration, which indicates one of two possible motivations to me. Motivation 1: the man is totally unscrupulous and without any principles whatsoever. Unlikely, but nevertheless possible. Motivation 2: He genuinely believes what he is doing is best for the country and the nation's defense, and when called, he answers, despite how horrible he thinks his boss will be. That he is thinking of the good of the nation, rather than the palatability of his leader seems to me to be the most likely motivation.


While Jim Webb is 71 and I am confident he will continue to contribute, I doubt he is thinking much these dayze about a "future political career." If Jim Webb were selected SecDef it would culminate quite the multi-faceted adventure of a lifetime. So I wish my former colleague well and only the best.
 
While Jim Webb is 71 and I am confident he will continue to contribute, I doubt he is thinking much these dayze about a "future political career." If Jim Webb were selected SecDef it would culminate quite the multi-faceted adventure of a lifetime. So I wish my former colleague well and only the best.

That is certainly something to consider, Tangmo. I should have appended "and potentially stained his personal legacy in the eyes of fellow Democrats and colleagues" for working with Donald Trump.
 
That is certainly something to consider, Tangmo. I should have appended "and potentially stained his personal legacy in the eyes of fellow Democrats and colleagues" for working with Donald Trump.


I don't think either of Jim Webb as just entering his 70s. Jim's as robust and healthy as anyone 20 years younger. In one of my posts above I had Jim figuratively pole vaulting the Potomac to land feet first at Pentagon had he been asked two years ago. Pentagon River Entrance of course.

I noticed this easy oversight in your fine post which caused me to recognize that the vast majority of people don't think of Jim Webb as some kind of creaky old vet guy aged 93 or even as the 71 that he is. We think of Jim as vigorous and stridently engaged which is what he is and will continue to be. Lots of the senior folk are still stepping on out in fact.
 
It'd be worth it just to see the next meltdown freak-out by the left.
 
He would be fine but I can find no confirmation that he is interested in the gig.
 
I certainly shall, NeverTrumpGOP. Webb is basically destroying whatever chance of a future political career he would have had by working with the Trump administration, which indicates one of two possible motivations to me. Motivation 1: the man is totally unscrupulous and without any principles whatsoever. Unlikely, but nevertheless possible. Motivation 2: He genuinely believes what he is doing is best for the country and the nation's defense, and when called, he answers, despite how horrible he thinks his boss will be. That he is thinking of the good of the nation, rather than the palatability of his leader seems to me to be the most likely motivation.

It'd be worth it just to see the next meltdown freak-out by the left.


I’m thinking ADD, with the deficit on the incoming attention, amirite?
 
There are reports that Jim Webb is under consideration to replace Gen. Mattis at the Pentagon. I was interested when Webb was exploring a POTUS run in 2014/15. I was a supporter until he would not pin down exactly what he was for and continued to ask for money.

Chuck Hagel was of similar interest when he was a Senator from Nebraska. Returning after a number of years to serve as Sec/Def, he had lost some of his appeal.

Hagel served as an enlisted man in Viet Nam and Webb was a Marine officer awarded the Navy Cross.



Webb seems to be a strange pick by the Trump Administration.

Webb was openly hostile to 43.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2008/02/01/jim-webb-no-more-combat-boots/

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/03/jim-webb-defense-secretary-1060169
I looked at Webb during his brief run in 2016. I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times while he was Secretary of the Navy. He made it a point to meet with active duty military in small groups during his travels and happened to come aboard a ship I was on. A small group of us got to sit down and talk with no superiors or note takers. He was, excuse the cliché, down to earth, just another one of the guys and very forthright and open. A good candidate for Sec Def.

ETA: There was also a story that Webb beat up Oliver North for the Naval Academy intermural boxing championship. I forget which weight class
 
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Why anyone with any integrity would want to work for the imbecile in chief that will make a fool out of those that work for him is beyond me. I just don't get it .
That's probably more your problem than theirs. :cool:
 
While true, we do need an adult in the room. So the question remains...Do we give Webb the benefit of the doubt? Trump seems to have a way of forcing people to say his talking points when they work with him or at least expose that they agree with most of them...
I don't recall any President that was overly tolerant of his subordinates publicly criticizing his policies.
 
I want Webb to run for President again. He could easily beat Trump.
I don't think Webb would resonate with today's Democrats.
 
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