[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16583]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTES TO DEPARTING SENATORS


                                JIM WEBB

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I wish to say a few words about my friend 
and colleague Senator Jim Webb. He has made a decision not to run for 
reelection which, for me, is very sad, but it is truly not a good deal 
for the State of Virginia or our country. Jim Webb has served one term 
in the Senate. He accomplished more in that one term than most do in a 
lifetime. I repeat, I am very sorry to see him leave.
  Jim is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, a highly decorated 
Marine. He was an infantry officer and served with distinction in 
Vietnam, and that is an understatement. He did serve with distinction. 
He earned a Navy Cross, which is the second highest decoration in the 
Navy and Marine Corps. He got that for heroism in Vietnam. He was 
awarded a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts.
  He, of course, wanted to be in the military all of his life, but when 
he returned from Vietnam he could not do it anymore. His injuries from 
the war prevented him from doing that. He attended Georgetown Law 
School where he graduated with distinction, served 4 years with 
President Reagan as Assistant Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the 
Navy. He was the first Naval Academy graduate to serve as the civilian 
head of the Navy. He is also an author, having written six books, a 
filmmaker, screen writer. He even won an Emmy.
  Long after Jim Webb left the Marine Corps, and despite his many 
civilian accomplishments, he remains a marine at heart. He is a marine 
through and through. He learned the tradition of service at home, 
although home changed often with his father's duty station. Jim's 
father was an officer in the U.S. Air Force and a pilot during World 
War II.
  Jim's son, Jimmy Webb, a marine who served in Iraq, continued that 
tradition of service. Although Jim Webb was a vocal opponent of the 
Iraq war, he was incredibly proud of his son's service as a soldier in 
battle-torn Iraq. Every day of his 2006 campaign, Jim Webb wore his 
son's combat boots. It was a tribute not only to Jimmy, his boy, but to 
all people who have been sent into harm's way, he said.
  I met Jim Webb in my office not far from here as a result of Senator 
Bob Kerrey asking me if I would spend some time with him. I was happy 
to do so. I will never forget that meeting, just the three of us in the 
room. Those of us who worked with Bob Kerrey know he is and was such a 
vibrant person. He was almost mischievous, I guess you could put it. 
You could just tell he had a little touch of differentness.
  When he brought Jim in to visit with me I learned very quickly they 
were both warriors--Bob Kerrey, a Navy Seal, recipient of the Medal of 
Honor, and Jim Webb, as we said, Navy Cross, a Silver Star, two Bronze 
Stars, both veterans of the Vietnam war.
  As we sat talking, it was obvious they were both fighters, warriors. 
Jim certainly proved that in his 2006 campaign. The reason Bob wanted 
me to visit with him is because Jim Webb had decided he wanted to run 
for the Senate. What did I think of it?
  I probably told Jim what a lot of people told him: You want to run 
for the Senate? The election is right upon us.
  He said, I want to do that.
  Not many believed he had any chance of winning. He believed he could, 
Bob Kerrey believed he could, but he ran because he wanted to and, boy, 
did he run hard.
  For me, though, it did not settle in my mind until the night before 
the election. There was an event in Alexandria, VA. It was a cold 
November night. I stood with Jim on that stage. I realized then that he 
could win. People were lined up for blocks. ``Lined up'' was the wrong 
word--people covered blocks. Every open space as far as you could see 
was filled with people.
  President Clinton was there. I was there. They didn't come to see me, 
of course. They came to see not President Clinton, they came to see Jim 
Webb because he was doing the impossible. He had captivated the voters. 
He was unafraid. He spoke his mind. And what a smart man.
  I marvel at the intelligence of Jim Webb, his ability to learn and to 
express his ideas. As I said, he captivated the voters. That is really 
why he won the race he should not have been able to win.
  Once he was elected, he was a marvel to watch. He believed he could 
change the world. He did change several corners of the world. Let me 
give one example. He was a new Senator and he came to me and said, I 
have an idea. Jim Webb is not a person who just focuses on an idea and 
walks away from it. When Jim Webb came to see me, he had the 
legislation he had drafted. It was not sent to some bill drafter to 
have him look it over, he drafted the legislation himself. What did he 
want to do? He wanted to introduce a post-
9/11 GI Bill Of Rights. What he wanted to do was expand educational 
benefits for military families and he brought our commitment to our 
veterans to the standard enjoyed by World War II veterans. He was just 
a freshman Senator.
  After spending about an hour with him with facts and figures and the 
actual legislation, I said sign me up. I will do whatever I can to help 
you with it.
  A brand new Senator passed this major piece of legislation. He built 
a coalition of veterans and Democratic and Republican Senators to fight 
for this legislation. Since this legislation became law in 2008, more 
than 750,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their 
families have used the program to access the education they deserve.
  Jim, who speaks Vietnamese, has also helped shape our country's 
foreign policy in other places. He played a key role in Burma where he 
secured the rights of democracy activists such as Aung San Suu Kyi, who 
came and visited us a month or so ago.
  Jim Webb is a unique individual in so many different ways. He has 
visited many of the places where the battles were fought in World War 
II. He went to those islands and spent time walking to see what the 
veterans had gone through in a war prior to the one in which he was 
involved. He actually did that. It was physically hard, but he wanted 
to do that and he did it on his own.
  Robert Kennedy said:

       Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but 
     each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and 
     in the total of all those acts will be written the history of 
     this generation.

  Jim Webb should be proud of his part--it was not a small part--in 
writing the history of his generation. He did it in the battlefields in 
Vietnam. He did it in the Pentagon. He did it here in the Senate.
  I do not know what is ahead for Jim Webb, but we have not heard the 
last of him. He has a wonderful, beautiful wife and wonderful children. 
He left his mark on the Senate and he will never be forgotten, even 
though he served here one term. I am really sorry his Senate career was 
not longer, but I am gratified it was so productive.
  I congratulate Jim Webb and express on this record how much I admire 
him and what a strength he has been to me. He was a strength to me on 
the health care bill. He has given me wonderful information on 
immigration--which I have spent a lot of time on. I have read some of 
his books. I have not read them all but I read a couple of them. He is 
somebody I will miss very much and I will always consider Jim Webb 
somebody who made me a better person.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. HAGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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