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With Daring Prison-Reform Proposal, Sen. Jim Webb Tries to Make Each Word Count

"Everything should be on the table," Webb says.

And there it is -- damn the consequences!

This is why, even as editorialists in the mainstream media applaud his efforts to reform the overall criminal justice system, he's also racking up headlines in High Times magazine and getting shout-outs from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws for his "candor and political courage."

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, better known by the acronym LEAP -- a group of current and former law enforcement officers -- is running a petition on its Internet site in support of Webb's commission. The petition and a video of Webb appear beneath the group's signature pitch: photos of Al Capone ("Alcohol Smuggler") and Pablo Escobar ("Drug Cartel"), accompanied by the line, "Same problem . . . same solution. Repeal Prohibition Now!"

LEAP's Norman Stamper, a former chief of police in Seattle, praises Webb as "a tough guy" and says "the hope is that an honest, very critical examination of drug laws will lead to the conclusion that prohibition doesn't work."

Little public opposition has emerged, though that might have more to do with the bill's uncertain status than anything else. In the meantime, Webb says he's been contacted about his proposal by the president and Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, both of whom gave encouraging signals. And he is quietly amassing an eclectic band of supporters, ranging from the influential -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada -- to the surprising -- conservative Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. On board, too, is Nolan, a former California state lawmaker who did time in the 1990s for racketeering. Nolan sees Webb's commission as a way to steer drug offenders to treatment facilities, rather than warehousing them in prisons.

Senate insiders have been somewhat surprised about how seamlessly Webb has managed the early stages of selling his bill to members of Congress ever wary of being labeled as soft on crime. His substantive, non-emotional, almost academic approach to the discussion seems at odds with the brusque Jim Webb some have come to expect, and even dread.

Why, wasn't it just a three years ago that Webb had his infamous set-to with then-President Bush at a White House reception for new members of Congress? Bush asked Webb, whose son is a Marine and was stationed in Iraq, "How's your boy?"

Webb -- who had worn his son's combat boots every day during his upset 2006 Senate campaign -- responded, "That's between me and my boy." Later he told The Washington Post, "I'm not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall."

"We were expecting him to be out in the parking lot having fistfights," a high-ranking Senate aide said. "But that's not the way it has been. He's impressed everyone with his preparation and his composure."

Still, Nolan says, "he's not warm and fuzzy. He's not a hail-fellow-well-met kind of guy. He's kind of abrupt. But I don't want somebody who is a glad-hander. I want somebody who can get things done."

But where to look for clues about how he might do it?

He is the writer, after all, so what does he write about getting things through Congress? His latest book -- a nonfiction entry -- is called "A Time to Fight," which sounds kind of feisty. But there, in the text, we see a measure of restraint, even as the writer is preparing for battle.

"The United States Senate is composed of 100 scorpions in a jar," the writer writes. "And one should be very careful in deciding how and when to shake that jar."


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