Monday, September 25, 2006
What a tangle Webb is weaving
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Craig Shirley
Shirley, a resident of Alexandria, is president of Shirley and Banister Public Affairs, and the author of "Reagan's Revolution; The Untold Story of the Campaign that Started it All" about the 1976 campaign. He is now writing "Rendezvous With Destiny" about Reagan's 1980 campaign. Shirley worked for Ronald Reagan including running independent campaigns supporting the Gipper in 1980 and 1984.
In the wake of the post "macaca" uproar, Democratic Senate nominee Jim Webb is wisely attempting to press his advantage, using 20-year-old video of Ronald Reagan praising him in a political campaign ad being aired throughout Virginia. But, can Jim Webb honestly and legitimately claim Reagan's legacy?
Despite the pleas of Nancy Reagan, Webb has decided to turn a deaf ear toward her request to yank the television commercial. Now, a reporter for The Washington Post has attempted to embarrass the campaign of George Allen, making the spurious charge that Allen's campaign had similarly used a photograph of Reagan and the Senator together in a campaign brochure. Isn't this sauce for the goose?
Unfortunately, both the reporter and Allen's campaign missed the point. First, Mrs. Reagan did not ask Allen to remove the photograph of President Reagan from his brochure. And perhaps even more important, Allen, unlike Webb, is the true conservative in this political contest to represent Virginia.
Webb is a war hero beyond a shadow of a doubt. Fact is, Reagan very well may have liked Webb. Let's face it, Reagan was a sucker for war heroes such as Bob Dole and his old friend and consigliere Franklyn "Lyn" Nofziger who lost part of his left hand to Nazi shrapnel. So Reagan's kind words about veterans were quite in character.
The Webb campaign is now engaged in a sort of Orwellian revisionism regarding Reagan's relationship with Webb. The fact remains that Reagan probably barely knew Webb, but was in all probability aware of Webb's record of insubordination during his very short time in the Reagan administration.
Any honest effort to document the true nature of Webb's "relationship" with Reagan should include Webb's opposition to Reagan on defense spending, social issues, tax cuts and commitment to smaller government, abortion, Reagan's federalism agenda, Mid-East policy, and Reagan's posture toward Europe and Japan. This is not an all-inclusive list. One must wonder if there was any Reagan initiative on God's green Earth that Webb did support.
But if one wants to get into a tit-for-tat argument about who has the closer Reagan association, then Allen unquestionably holds the trump card. George Allen was the chairman of Youth for Reagan in Virginia in 1976, at a time when many people in his own party were badmouthing Ronald Reagan. Allen, like other young conservatives, saw something in Reagan that must have eluded Webb and other Democrats at the time.
Of course, Allen's father George, the legendary NFL coach, was very good friends with Reagan. How close? Well, several years ago, I was at the Reagan Ranch when I noticed a book written by Coach Allen resting on the reading table right next to Reagan's favorite chair.
Most important, however, are George Allen's own actions, votes and record -- which reflect an abiding commitment to Reagan conservatism. George Allen has spent his entire career in public service fighting for lower taxes, less government intrusion, and greater individual liberty for every citizen of this commonwealth.
Webb's campaign, by inference, is trying to suggest that since he served in the military and Allen did not, and since Allen was not born in Virginia, these facts somehow disqualify Allen. Yet Reagan did not serve in a combat position, and he was not born in California, the state from which he launched his political career.
And in this fact is the telling truth that Allen, not Webb, is the rightful heir in Virginia of the Reagan legacy. Allen chose Virginia, as Reagan chose California. And George Allen, like Ronald Reagan, has always known that this country -- and especially this state -- has always been about where we were going and not where we were from. Reagan liked to quote de Tocqueville, referring to America, as the country of tomorrow. When one listens to Allen, one knows he understands in his heart that America and the Old Dominion have always been about the future.
Service to America in Vietnam by Jim Webb is something to be honored and appreciated. Yet, that service is in the distant past, and our commonwealth and the children we cherish are about the future. Something that Allen understands all too well.
