Virginia's senator ... caught in his own Webb

~On his way to becoming "R3D2"?~

U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) was referred to as "R2D2" by then-Sen. George Allen during a 2006 debate at The Homestead in western Virginia. The reference was to Jim Webb's flip-flops from Republican to Democrat to Republican and back to Democrat for his personal political survival.

Jim Webb voted for the Obama health care bill. Does he now see the handwriting on the wall and is he possibly thinking of bailing on the Democrats?

Webb has effectively ignored his constituents the past year. He ignored them when they visited in Washington, he skipped out on an overseas trip last summer and avoided holding any townhall meetings even as questions arose over health care, and he avoids meeting with Virginia citizens in his satellite offices.

Barbara Hollingsworth at the Washington Examiner sees through Webb:

There’s nothing like a party changer to sense exactly when the political winds have shifted decisively in the other direction. Before the champagne at Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown’s campaign headquarters dried, freshman Virginia Senator Jim Webb, D-VA, was busy trying to figure out how to spin his way out of the mess he’s in.
...
It was only after Brown’s victory that Webb declared: “It is vital that we restore the respect of the American people in our system of government and in our leaders. To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated.”

Read the entire commentary where she closes with a zinger:

... it took the late Ted Kennedy’s seat falling into Republican hands to convince Webb that he needed to distance himself from the rest of his fellow Senate Democrats, who totally excluded Republicans when they were putting together this legislative monstrosity. Webb’s too-little, too-late insistence on fairness now is nothing but another political calculation designed to insulate himself from irate voters. If Brown is seated and the Republicans filibuster, Webb can blame them for “killing health care reform,” supposedly leaving him completely off the hook.

Too little, too late. Too bad Senator Webb didn't feel this way a year ago.

H/T to Dick