Virginia Tomorrow

When Jim Webb’s op-ed was published in The Wall Street Journal, State Senator Donald McEachin praised Jim Webb for authoring a provocative article that could focus attention on what was needed to provide equal opportunity for all.

Doug Wilder was highly critical of Webb’s position, but most of the state’s prominent Dems- Warner, Kaine, and Scott- were not immediately available for comment.

Four days later, my sense is that McEachin’s position could  become an increasingly lonely one in Democratic circles.

On Monday, Salim Khalfani, Executive Director of the Virginia NAACP, penned a scathing letter to Webb in which he noted that the NACCP “vehemently disagrees with your analysis” and asserts that Webb’s position on the “myth of white privilege” is “kith and kin” to Rand Paul.

I doubt that most Democrats will accept Khalfani’s characterization of Webb and or be as pointed in denouncing his perspective.

But I’m not certain that they’ll go too far in defending him either.

An op-ed in The Washington Post on Monday by E.J. Dionne titled “Enough Right Wing Propaganda” helps to explain why.

Dionne argues that the Obama administration and American progressives have been put of the defensive by the “right wing” and have shamelessly conceded far too much .

The mainstream media and the Obama administration must stop cowering before a right wing that has persistently forced its propaganda to be accepted as “news” by convncing traditional journalists that “fairness” requires treating extremist rants as “one side of the story.” And there can be no more shilly-shallying about the fact that racial backlash politics is becoming an important component of the campaign against President Obama and against progressives in this election year.

Dionne’s article doesn’t mention Webb at all, but it expresses the dominant mood among American progressives at the moment: they need to fight back against conservative criticism, not retreat another inch on the critical issues of the day.

“No shilly-shallying about… racial backlash politics.”

Certainly no admission that conservative criticism of diversity programs is on target.

Webb’s stance is essentially 180 degrees off-kilter with how the Democrats are likely to fight this election cycle.

I doubt that this will bother Jim Webb much at all.

He’s comfortable with the maverick role- indeed, he could teach Sarah Palin a few things about going rogue.

But don’t expect to see too many Democrats joining McEachin in a praise chorus.