Speaking of the veepstakes, I have a piece up at TAP today reviewing James Webb's new book, A Time To Fight, and thinking through the case to make him vice president. An excerpt:After leaving the Marines, Webb could have taken any number of jobs in the military-industrial complex, but became a writer and journalist in order to protect his autonomy. He resigned from his post as Secretary of the Navy because he disagreed with proposed cuts in shipbuilding. Importantly, both decisions are presented as sacrifices in service of principle. "I valued my philosophical and political independence," says Webb, "and I did not want to trade away the credibility of any controversial position I might hold by having opponents claim I was merely trying to sell a product or to advance a client's point of view." Politicians often make this claim. But Webb's career, the jobs he left behind and the lucrative opportunities he passed up, give it force.Regrettably, this outlook is the antithesis of the vice presidency, which often requires mortgaging your personal credibility and sacrificing your independence in order to further the president's point of view. Lyndon Johnson's vice president, Hubert Humphrey, said of the position, "Anyone who thinks that the vice-president can take a position independent of the president of his administration simply has no knowledge of politics or government. You are his choice in a political marriage, and he expects your absolute loyalty." Humphrey gave his absolute loyalty, and found himself silenced and sidelined. It is hard to imagine Webb enduring similar treatment, or proving similarly docile in the face of decisions with which he disagreed.[...]The vice presidency is quite a prize, of course, and it is possible that compromises could be made. Assume Webb would be able to subsume his beliefs, his opinions, and his personality. Assume he would hold his tongue and sand off his edges. What a waste. In management, there's a dictum known as The Peter Principle, which states, "in a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." Webb, an idiosyncratic, free-thinking, independent-minded politician, is being pushed for a position that steamrolls those qualities. Worse, he's being pushed for the position because people love what an idiosyncratic, free-thinking, independent-minded politician he is. It's like celebrating a former alcoholic's sobriety by taking him out for a drink.There's much more, including a look at where his foreign policy differs from that of the party, his symbolic importance as a refugee from Nixonland, whether it would be desirable for him to actually be the vice-president, and how his political style is based around an appreciation of tragedy. Give it a read.Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Waldo Jaquith.
