Make no mistake. Jim Webb scares the Republicans (and their Democratic apologists) silly. And not just the neo-cons but the theo-cons and the paleo-cons too. And especially the DLC/Third Way crowd. Why? Because he represents the evolution of a movement that Howard Dean started, but could not - because of who Howard is and where he comes from - complete. Jim Webb represents the return of the "Reagan Democrat" to the Democratic party and the rebuilding of the Great Democratic FDR coalition.
See below for details...
The Scots-Irish were the original working class of American society and for many years formed the core of the Democratic Party. Webb's underestanding of the history of the Scots-Irish in America - he wrote a book on them - allows him to speak to the core of those Democrats who defected to the Republican Party because of cultural issues. Webb cannot be tarred with the Fox News brushes of "elitism," "feminism," or "San Francisco values."
The Administration knows that the drag show that Karl has concocted for Dubya is severely threatened by the truth of Webb's background... There is a real man behind the persona. The broohaha over the Bush-Webb encounter reads like classic "attack your opponent's strength" Rove gambit. The talking points were ready for disemination to all takers including Medved, Will and Malkin. But I think it backfired. People in DC know what a spoiled prick Bush is, and I don't think it soiled Webb one iota. The Lieberman-types were already terrified because Webb's credentials as a Reaganite are unimpeachable, and his appeal to the lunch pail crowd is undeniable.
If Cindy Sheehan could scare Bush into his Katrina coma, imagine how many adult-diapers Bush is going to need with Webb around for his last two years.
Remember how Ollie North intimidated the Democrats on the Iran-Contra committee... and North was merely a witness who had broken the law. Webb will have the bully pulpit on foreign affairs and will speak with the down-home Marine authenticity, backed by his years as Reagan's undersecretary of defense. Which brings me to Sy Hersh's new article about Robert Gates. Hersh essentially says that Gates will bring the same strategy in a new body...
(http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/061127fa_fact)
If Cheney, Bush and Rove are trying to pull one over on the American people so they can try to save their legacy with an Iran invasion, they fear the credibility that Webb will bring to the opposition to this insane gambit. Especially when combined with someone like Chuck Hagel, Webb will see through Gates as a "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" replacement, and will challenge him hard during the hearings. The Bushies know that they cannot control the politics of this, and so they are trying to soften Webb for that fight.
On a longer term level, they fear the defection of working White Men from the suburbs and rural areas back to the Democratic Party. Big Business DLC types, as well as neo-con ideologues, and theo-con theo-crats fear a Democratic Party that is focused - not on social issues - but on economic issues. Such a party harkens back to the era when unions and dixiecrats, blacks and jews, working men and women all made common cause against - not the elites from Hollywood or San Fransisco, but - the elites from country clubs and mega-churches and think-tanks and financial/pharmaceutical/petroleum firms in places like Houston and Virginia Beach and Palo Alto and Hartford.
So of course they are scared of Jim Webb... He is the apotheosis of Howard Dean's challenge to the Democratic Party... "White folks in the South who drive pickups with Confederate flag decals on the back ought to be voting with us and not them because their kids don't have health insurance, and their kids need better schools, too."
The Republicans should be afraid... Very afraid.