More from Window on The Week:

“Interesting.” That’s been the almost universal reaction to former Reagan Navy secretary and Vietnam veteran James Webb’s victory in the Democratic senatorial primary in Virginia. Webb is loudly proclaiming himself an old-style conservative Democrat who happens to oppose the Iraq War — despite his newly minted liberal views on nearly everything. Democratic powerbrokers, exhibiting once again their taste for running anti-war vets, backed Webb, helping him over the top against his better-funded, better-credentialed liberal opponent Harris Miller. Webb will certainly give Sen. George Allen a tougher race than Miller, and potentially could get traction by associating Allen with President Bush and criticizing Allen’s budding pursuit of the presidency in 2008 at the same time he’s running for six more years in the Senate in 2006. If Webb’s candidacy is an inconvenience for the heavily favored Allen — who would prefer to be working the early 2008 states with the same intensity as Mitt Romney and John McCain — it’s also an opportunity. If he is seen as effectively rebutting Webb’s anti-war arguments and soundly beating a worthy adversary, it could burnish his 2008 credentials. But Allen can’t look past this race, lest it get too interesting for his comfort.

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