Breakfast with Jim Webb

On Foreign Policy:

I've served on the Foreign Relations Committee and Armed Services Committee.  We've been trying to refocus our strategy on Iraq and International Terrorism.

Where the Dem party is and where we need to go with this campaign:   If you look back, the last time that a Democratic candidate got the majority of the votes in a national election, it was 1976.  

The Democratic party got away from the message of putting American first.  Call them the Reagan Democrats or whatever you call them.  The alliance of the Wall Street Royalists and these emotional division issues has been successful.  

Democrats should get back to our message of America first.  I've been getting a real feeling that this is going to happen again.  I pushed it real hard to put it in the national response to the President's State of the Union.  The average corporate CEO makes 400 times the average worker.  In Japan and Germany the CEO makes 11 or 12.  A few days later Bush went to the stock exchange to talk about exec compensation.  He didn't do anything about it, but...

Joe Biden is chair of foreign relations and judiciary, but he's someone who has spent his entire career as a champion of the American worker.  And I think that Biden plus Obama is going to bring back a lot of these people.

Incarceration.  I had people tell me not to talk about it.  You have to talk about it.  We've got 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prison population, either we've got the most evil people on earth or we've got a system that's so messed up that we're locking people up when we shouldn't.

We have 2.83 million people in jail.  I'm all for breaking the back of these international gangs.  We're doing something wrong with these

You're not a criminal if you're an alcoholic.  You shouldn't be a criminal if you're addicted to drugs.  We're going to start working towards more sensible solutions.

Accountability:  

On Presidential accountability to the congress and the accountability of all of us to the people who elect us.  I campaigned on developing the creation of a modern version of a Truman commission.  I worked with Claire McKaskill to build The Wartime Contract Commission.  People had been talking about it for years.  We got it done in 9 months.

I always say that If there's anyone who I would like to model my career in the Senate on, it's Daniel Patrick Moynahan who was able to combine an academic career with government service.  I had been privileged to meet with his widow.  During the conversation she confided to me that If she had one wish, and one thing that she knows Senator Moynahan would like to see it would be to have the legislative branch to step up and reclaim the powers that it has given up to the presidency.

I want to take this on.  What I want to do is give the congressional branch back the power taken by the Executive.  I want to play a big part in this and I want that to be a major part of our accomplishments in the US Senate.

Energy Policy:

I want to play a role in building a true national energy policy in this country.

We should have forced a vote to put oil speculation back in the regular markets.  When the Republicans pushed the issue of offshore drilling.  They made a mistake.  We should explore first and then take up the debate of whether to drill.  Offshore exploration.  First you explore, then you bring the matter to the state legislature.  If you did that you could use the money for environmental, renewable energy, transporations, whatever you need.  

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