Jim Webb Quotes

It's like going into the Senate. You know, the first time you get there, you're all excited, 'My God, how did I ever get here?' Then, about six months later, you say, 'How the hell did the rest of them get here?'

I'm not serving in office because I desperately needed 99 new friends in the U.S. Senate.

Everyone believed the Senate could not really be led. It used to take so long to rise up through seniority. In two years Lyndon Johnson is assistant leader of his party. In four years he is the leader of his party.

Now I have known Sen. Bill Frist, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, since he was born.

I loved being in the Senate. That was a wonderful experience.

Rock stars generally don't last in the Senate, starting with John Kennedy. Too much work, too slow, too little juice. Getting something accomplished takes a remarkable amount of tedious work. Rock stars who become senators either run for something else or retire on the job. They certainly don't make a mark.

[Warren] Harding didn't like being a Senator; he liked being in the Senate.

The traditional path to making a name for yourself in our family is running for elective office, and I couldn't do that because, for one thing, all the really good offices were taken.

I came to Washington understanding what the Senate is capable of accomplishing and knowing that I'd have myriad opportunities as a senator to get things done.

There are so many societies, so many churches, so many -isms, that it is almost impossible for an independent man to succeed in a political career.

I loved what I did. I could've been secretary of state for ever.

Truth be known, President Obama has never been particularly driven by principle. Right after his election, I wrote a column in a few days warning people that even though I voted for Obama, he was not what people were describing him to be. I saw him in the Senate. I saw him in Chicago.

Ralph Reed is deeply ambitious and always was so. There was a time when he... in one of my interviews, he said he pondered running the Ross Perot campaign, and he wasn't sure he wanted to do the Christian Right thing; he was worried that it boxed him into a corner.

I'm interested in being part of a majority in the Senate.

I didn't get to the Senate by accident.

The idea of being in the State Department was exciting. On the other hand, I always had in the back of my mind going into politics. If I stayed in Washington, I might end up a government hack.

I wanted to have a political career. I thought studying political science would be the best way to achieve it.

In the heart of every legislator lurks a judicial candidate waiting his or her turn for election.

The only way to get anywhere in Congress is to stay there and let seniority take its course.

When I was elected at age 27 to the New York City Council I immediately became Minority Leader. I was the only Republican.

I would rather have a full term in the Senate—a place in which I would feel more consciously able to discharge the duties required, and where there is more chance to make a reputation, and less danger of losing it than four years of the presidency.

Mothers may still want their sons to grow up to become President, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process.

Lunched with Jack Kennedy, the new Senator from Massachusetts. He has the making of a first-class Senator or a first-class fascist.

Men in political life must be ambitious.

A man’s got to walk if he is going to be in politics.