Support the Troops, Send Them To Congress

This is the slogan of IAVA PAC, a new political action committee representing the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. I've been talking about the Fighting Dems for a while, the growing number of men and women who've come back from Iraq or Afghanistan and decided to run... as Democrats... in elections for the House and Senate. This group took a major (and undeserved) setback when Paul Hackett was cut off at the knees by the Beltway Establishment and forced out of the race ("We know best, just look at our track record!"). Well, Hackett's turned up in IAVA PAC as a member of their advisory board, along with Wesley Clark and Bob Kerrey (read the press release here). They have a blog as well.

Despite the Hackett imbroglio, I really do think that the Democrats have an excellent chance at winning back Congress in spite of themselves. These veterans have a message on Iraq, a battle-tested and educated one based on service in the field. Republicans are going to have little ammunition for debate in these races outside of flat-out smear tactics. And I don't think the voters, who are desperate for competence instead of politics as usual, will be receptive. The RNC party line so far on the Fighting Dems has been basically to ignore it, which they do at their peril.

Speaking of veterans, another one officially entered the fray yesterday, with Reagan-era bona fides and a strong voice:

Former Navy Secretary James Webb formally declared his Democratic candidacy for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, characterizing incumbent George Allen as a cog in an extremist national Republican Party.

"The Republican Party of George W. Bush is not the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan," Webb said during a news conference in the General Assembly Building. A Secretary of the Navy under Reagan, Webb criticized the GOP for moving to the "extreme" on social issues and espousing a foreign policy that is "an attempt to export our ideology at the point of a gun."

Webb, then a Republican, served as Reagan's Navy secretary in 1987 and 1988. He said he voted for Allen and George W. Bush in 2000.

Webb, 60, said he switched to the Democratic Party several years ago when he was writing a history book and was impressed with the Democratic Party's working-class traditions.

"I was trying to find the answers, and I think the Democratic Party is the place where answers were found," he said.

It's quite a coup to get a former Reagan Navy secretary into our big-tent party. And in Virginia, a purple state with two straight popular Democratic governors, his message could resonate. Sen. Allen is widely seen by insiders as a 2008 Presidential front-runner. Beating him in November would be a major victory on multiple levels. From what I've heard of Webb, I think he has the stuff to do it.