Repeal Advocates Pressure Jim Webb and Democrat Wimps

I have been up front in my total dissatisfaction with one of my U.S. Senators - i.e., Jim Webb - and his betrayal of LGBT Virginians and the countless closeted service members stationed in Virginia through his vote against the DADT "compromise" in the Senate Armed Forces Committee. That and his willingness to kiss the wide asses of homophobes in the senior ranks of the U.S. military. Indeed, I suspect his staff have winced reading this blog or when they encounter me at political event. Fortunately, more and more LGBT advocates are waking up to Webb's betrayal and the damage he is likely doing to incumbent Democrats up for re-election this November. As E.J. Dionne notes in a Washington Post column, malaise within the Democrat base is the number one problem facing the Democrats as November approaches:
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There is something preposterous about how the administration and congressional Democrats have lost every major public argument that they should be winning.
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They lost it on a stimulus bill that clearly lifted the economy, as Alan Blinder, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, argued persuasively in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal. They are losing it on the health-care bill, a big improvement on the current system enacted through a process that made it look like a tar ball on an Alabama beach. They are losing it on the deficit even though it was Republicans who cut taxes twice while the Bush administration was starting two wars.
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Professor Obama and his allies ought to be ashamed of this. The cure for malaise is to have a self-confident sense of purpose, and to act boldly in its pursuit.
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The result is that more and more activists are willing to speak out against Jim Webb and similar cowards who are afraid to act and deliver on the campaign promises from the 2008 campaign are who are playing directly into the hands of the GOP. Webb and those like him are making a strong case that electing Democrats makes absolutely no difference - so why bother to vote for them. Here are highlights from an article in The Advocate that looks at the growing pressure and similar Judas Iscariots within the GOP:
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Repeal advocates are mounting an effort to push back on Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia for voting against “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal in committee in order to keep other Democrats from doing the same on the Senate floor.
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“We hope that Virginians will not give Senator Jim Webb a pass on his vote in the Senate Armed Services Committee to keep ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ on the books,” said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. “His vote was against equality, and fair-minded Virginians should take exception.”
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Sarvis said holding Webb accountable for his committee vote is an important part of sending a message to Webb’s counterpart, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, that voting against repeal on the Senate floor will have consequences among his constituents.
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“It is our hope that Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia will do the right thing when the defense bill is debated and voted on the Senate floor,” he said.
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Sarvis said it was “critical” for those who favor repeal to contact their senators and urge them to “follow the lead” of the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin of Michigan, who will oppose attempts to strike repeal or weaken the measure’s language.
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What can readers do on this issue? Contact Jim Webb's office and let him know that his anti-gay vote will have negative consequences in your home district. While you are at it, tell your local member of the House of Representatives that Webb and those like him may cause you to sit out the November elections. Somehow, I suspect that if Webb and his homophobe embracing cohorts in the Senate get enough calls from livid House members, just maybe Webb, et. al, will decide to change their anti-gay attitude.