A Q&A with Jim Webb: the senator sounds off on prison reform, life on Capitol Hill, and avoiding fights in bars.

• Author: Francis, David
• Position: TEN MILES SQUARE - Interview

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WM: Almost a year after your election, do you feel that the ideas about economic fairness you raised on the campaign trail continue to resonate?

JW: When I ran in 2006, the war and George Allen--his own little journey--overwhelmed the news. But in every single speech, I talked about economic fairness and executive compensation. I think these economic issues are sticking. Have you looked at the results of this year's Virginia state elections? Democrats ran on competence, as the people who know how to lead and solve economic problems. We picked up four seats, in solidly Republican districts.

WM: It feels like we're on an economic ledge, with a lot of problems in the housing market, growing income disparities, the impact of globalization and outsourcing. Is there anything you can do in Washington?

JW: There are certain things. First, raise the public consciousness about what is going on. Before the last election, the populist caucus in the Senate consisted of Byron Dorgan [laughs]. Now, probably six of the nine Democrats elected in 2006 feel strongly about issues of economic fairness.

One way to get things done is to look closely at tax policies. For instance, current policies that allow hedge-fund managers to designate their incomes as "capital gains," and get a reduced tax rate. Another way is to look at trade pacts. In none of the early trade pacts did we have provisions taking care of the American worker. Now we're putting them in.

There are a lot of votes I've taken where 30 percent of what I've voted for I didn't like. But 70 percent I had some agreement with. That's the most frustrating part, in terms of bringing a writer's sort of intellectual discipline to the table.

WM: How have you made the transition from a career in writing and journalism to working on the other side as a politician?

JW: When you write, you deal in complexities. You can render the complexities. In a job like this, where you vote, the vote is an absolute. Even if you believe in something 50.1 percent of the way, you have to vote one way or the other.

My intellectual growth really was as a writer, taking enormously complex issues and thinking about them, parsing them, and laying them out--sometimes in the human drama of a novel, and sometimes in straight-up essays.

I'm still trying to do that when I'm preparing to vote. I talk about the complexities on the Senate floor. Before complicated votes, I'll bring my staff in and let them debate...