Webb has pushed for a onetime windfall profits tax on Wall Street's record bonuses. He talks about the "unusual circumstances of the bailout," that the bonuses wouldn't be there without the bailout.
"I couldn't even get a vote," Webb says. "And it wasn't because of the Republicans. I mean they obviously weren't going to vote for it. But I got so much froth from Democrats saying that any vote like that was going to screw up fundraising.
"People look up say, what's the difference between these two parties? Neither of them is really going to take on Wall Street. If they don't have the guts to take them on, and they've got all these other programs that exclude me, well to hell with them. I'm going to vote for the other people who can at least satisfy me on other issues, like abortion. Screw you guys. I understand that mindset." (h/t Greenwald)
Read Greenwald's entire post if you want a good eye roll: The Politico reporter who wrote the article quoting Webb conflates Webb's desire to take on Wall Street with the mission of the Blue Dogs.
I'm not a huge Webb fan, but he intriques me and I respect him. Webb might lean conservative on cultural issues, but he 'gets it' when it comes to the politics of power and wealth. In that sense he's an old-school populist. Most Blue Dogs are corporate Dems who are neither populist nor centrist; they are coporatist. Webb better fits the definition of a "true centrist"; the corporate Dems nauseate him as much as they do any American with a lick of sense.