We all hear how corrupt our politicians
are and how our confidence in our Congress is at an all time low.
But here's a situation where you have someone in Congress who has
truly kept his word and has truly voted his conscience, not his party
ticket, and now we are about to lose him. Why? Because he is
keeping his word. That person is Senator Jim Webb from Virginia.
Senator Webb is not a professional politician. He is a retired
Marine who ran for the U.S. Senate, won, and is now planning to go
back to private life. He promised Virginians that if he were elected
to the Senate he would serve one term only; and he is keeping his
word. That is a true mark of integrety; that a man will do what he
says he will do. How many times do we see that in the politicians
who are voted into office?
As much as I would like to see Senator
Webb re-elected, my heart tells me he is doing the right thing.
Think about it for a moment. Without the need for money for a
re-election campaign, he can clearly vote his conscience and tell the
party, the lobbyists and all the others who would buy his votes to go
to hell. That is a monumental advantage he has over all the
professional politicians. Furthermore, with six years in office,
Senator Webb accomplished much. And his biggest accomplishment is
proof that you don't have to have umpteen years seniority to
accomplish things for your constituency. That alone is as big an
accomplishment as all the other politicians put together.
Yes, I worry a lot about who will
replace Jim Webb. It will probably be another corrupt, cynical, run-of-the-mill
politician whose campaign promises will be like almost all the others
– disingenuous; and whose votes will be like almost all of the
others – for sale to the highest bidder. But I'm afraid it must be so. At
least until Americans pull their collective heads out of the sand and
quit drinking the “Kool-Aid” we will be saddled with status quo:
“the best politicians money can buy”.
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