Oct 27, 2006 11:40am

A Novel Attack on VA Democratic Senate Candidate Jim Webb

ABC News’ Jack Tapper Reports: The campaign of Sen. George Allen, R-VA, unloaded a document dump last night — providing a press release to Mr. Drudge and, apparently, some at Fox News Channel — that takes gleanings from the novels of Democratic Senate challenger Jim Webb and attempts to use them to paint a picture of a deviant.

"Webb’s novels disturbingly and consistently – indeed, almost uniformly – portray women as servile, subordinate, inept, incompetent, promiscuous, perverted, or some combination of these," the Allen press release reads. "In novel after novel, Webb assigns his female characters base, negative characteristics. In thousands of pages of fiction penned by Webb, there are few if any strong, admirable women or positive female role models."

To Read More Click Here for Jake Tapper’s Blog "Political Punch"

User Comments

There is a far cry between Mr. Webb, as an author writing fiction, describing unnatural human behavior in the insanity of wartime–thus bringing it to light, and the actual practice of unnatural behavior by Mr. Foley, the political comrade of Senator Allen, and worse yet, of the Republican leadership, knowingly protecting such perversity right under their noses.
The Republican dirt-machine, now desperately operating in overdrive, no doubt hopes that Southerners in Virginia and Tennessee are so ignorant and so easily manipulated by distortions and lies, especially when there is a sexual or racial element, that they will again fall an easy prey for the GOP. Let’s hope that Southerners for once wise up to them.

Posted by: Arthur Wilson | October 27, 2006, 11:55 am 11:55 am

I would suggest that anyone who wants to fault James Webb on what he writes about to read the reviews of his books on Amazon. These reviews include that his works are the finest books of the War. I would further ask them to read what Senator McCaine had to say and that moreover after he wrote some of the soi called “sallacious” books he was appointed to be Assistant Secretary of Defense and then Secretary of the Navy by Ronald Regan. Are we to believe that President Regan would appoint a man such as the one that George Allen would now contend is unfit to serve because of what he wrote as a novelist. Are we also to believe that before being appointed President Regan was not aware of Mr. Webb’s writings. This man was well investigated before he was appointed.

Posted by: Joel Field | October 27, 2006, 12:11 pm 12:11 pm

The novels sound like a good read, indeed. What are the titles?
Perhaps Allen could write a so called fiction on racial politicizing.

Posted by: JM | October 27, 2006, 1:03 pm 1:03 pm

Webb can write what he wants, it’s free speech; but with free speech you have to be held accountable for what you say or write. I have read the excerpts, and frankly, they just seem odd and out of place. I personally don’t know where one would account for a father who picks up his naked son and insert the child’s penis in his mouth. But hey, if that’s in Webb’s head and he feels the need to express it- go for it. And yes, what you but down on paper in a work of fiction does represent the thought process that goes on in that person’s mind.

Posted by: James | October 27, 2006, 1:21 pm 1:21 pm

after the Foley story I’m down with the republicans

Posted by: robert lackey | October 27, 2006, 1:38 pm 1:38 pm

It amazes me. A republican (Allen) calls somebody a name (yes, stupidly) at a rally… it’s front page news… all over TV. “Horrible, Terrible” they cry.
The democrat (Webb), it is discovered, writes sex-trash scenes in his novels, and the story is buried across the media.
This story did not even appear on the front page of abcnews.com. I had to scroll WAAAY down the page on cbsnews.com to even find mention of it. It’s not on Yahoo’s headlines. I haven’t heard word one on network radio news as of 6pm Friday. (Talk shows, yes, of course… but Not the “news”.) Haven’t been near a TV today, so I can’t comment on that.
Even the headline of the CBS article makes it sound like Allen’s fault for daring to give this joker’s book a “bad review”.
I’d rewrite the headline to say something like: “Underage Sexual Perversion Found In VA Senate Candidate Jim Webb’s Novels”
Nobody who writes this kind of filth deserves to have a leadership role in any capacity… especially for Virginia.
(and don’t tell me it’s because it’s part of the story… come on now!)
Any party who would support this deserves to lose. I write this as an independent Virginia voter who has supported candidates of both parties… who WILL NOT be voting for Mr. Webb.

Posted by: Greg C | October 27, 2006, 3:07 pm 3:07 pm

This kind of shameful conduct is exactly why these republicans are in trouble today, no standards while running for office, no standards while in office. No wonder Foley’s seat was more important to them that protecting the young boy ! Their shame is now starting to foul the water so bad that not even the most loyal republican can drink from it !

Posted by: T. HINES | October 27, 2006, 3:33 pm 3:33 pm

Wow! Talk about grasping at straws. C’mon guys. Show some dignity. Losers on their way out need to show more class than this.
What are they gonna do next week? Try to convince us that finding evidence of the existence of the tooth fairy, bigfoot, and the easter bunny is more important than the disaster in Iraq?
Last month I was fairly certain that the GOP would hold onto control of congress, but when I read that the PR guys specifically want to turn the American public’s attention away from the war and onto taxes, I knew their time was up.
They’re cuttin’ and runnin’ like usual.
(Vote Robot)

Posted by: Bender | October 27, 2006, 4:01 pm 4:01 pm

Remember Mark Furman anyone? Seems to me that plenty of people at ABC implied that it was suspiciously racist for Mark Furman to use the N word in his novel. Right? So why not Jim Webb. After all was it not Webbs party that started the dirty campaigning anyway? Sounds like he can dish it out with Allen and Macaca but he can’t take it, and he is only being accused of his own words in print.

Posted by: Peter Riley | October 27, 2006, 6:55 pm 6:55 pm

My remarks are directed to Arthur Wilson: where do you get the idea that Mark Foley was Senator Allen’s “political comrade”? Can you prove that a professional relationship existed between the two or that they routinely spoke to one another?
Furthermore, Southerners aren’t stupid, and Democrats have many skeletons in the closet (i.e. Ted Kennedy’s fatal love affair and Clinton’s pre-eminent liaison with Ms. Lewinsky).

Posted by: NA | October 28, 2006, 12:13 am 12:13 am

i hope all the major news outlets go broke

Posted by: byrd | October 28, 2006, 2:26 am 2:26 am

This is purely a desperate attempt by the bumbling Allen campaign to sling some mud at Webb. That’s what GA needs to do, but folks have to realize that writing some questionable scens in critically-acclaimed noves (John McCain openly praised Webb’s books) does not mean the guy is a wacko. It will be interesting to see what, if any, impact this new “scandal” will have on that close race.

Posted by: matt | October 28, 2006, 4:21 am 4:21 am

The Republican ad running in Tenn. against Mr. Ford and the ad Senator Allen is running against his opponent shows just how corrupt the Republican Party really is. It is disgusting.

Posted by: Rick Pons | October 28, 2006, 8:18 am 8:18 am

What ever happened to to a civil debate where a Democrat and a Republican could disagree on issues, yet still show mutual respect? I’ll tell you: Karl Rove and his political machine have succeeded in crushing this harmony by pushing moral issues and governing from the extreme right to drive a wedge in our American Electorate. George Allen is using these “Rovian” tactics against Jim Webb now and Virginians are SMART enough to see through the Republican smoke screen. Because to Mr. Allen’s dismay, on the other side is the nonfiction story about American soldiers dying in a war with no end in sight, with a price tag of 4 BILLION a week, and a Republican run government that refuses to be truthful with the American people. Jim Webb’s books are highly acclaimed novels that George Allen should read. He could learn something about history. Sadly, they are no doubt foreshadowing the tone and language of future books written about this Iraq War.

Posted by: David C | October 28, 2006, 10:53 am 10:53 am

So this is what the so-called “party of ideas” has to resort to in one of the most important races in the country? Maybe this is a good sign. Everyone now knows that the Republican party is a party of horrible leadership and horrendous, historically bad ideas, and the only thing they have left is flipping through fiction books looking for passages that might offend a grandmother or two.
Face it, boys. The Republican revolution is dead, and nobody is coming to the funeral.

Posted by: glacialspeed | October 28, 2006, 11:57 am 11:57 am

Mr. Webb wrote these explicit passages while a Republican in the service of the Regan Administration. Would the last minute moralists correct me if I’m wrong but where was the outcry then? Webb was good enough of Regan and he’s probably good enough for Va. Perhaps all that moral outcry was simply bottled up until now coincidentally to explode during the last week of the campaign? Yeah that must be it- hey I got Ocean front property in Arizona for sale too- who’s buyin’?

Posted by: Tom Vaitys | October 28, 2006, 2:59 pm 2:59 pm

I can never figure out why Republicans like Rush Limbaugh and Lynne Cheney can do things (drug addiction and doctor hopping for Limbaugh and lesbian love story writing for Lynne Cheney) and think they are “above it all”. Republicans are always pomous, arrogant people who got us in all the messes we are in (Iraq, deficiets, New Orleans gone, less jobs, only millionaires getting richer, corporate corruption, political corruption, gay Republican trolls) today. So tell me again why to vote Republican?

Posted by: Greg | October 29, 2006, 8:26 am 8:26 am

Greg — then you are truly ignorant!
Jim Webb’s books are REQUIRED reading of all marines ranked corporal to sergeant as indicated on the marine corps reading program web site — it is also on the Official Reading List of the Commandant of the U.S. Marines.
It is heralded as one of the all-time greatest novels written about the Vietnam War.
The U.S. Constitution is also listed as required reading alongside Jim Webb’s book.
Now, if you are TRULY Independant Va voter and are now presented with these facts — i seriously doubt you could not vote for Webb because of “this issue”.
If you say you can’t — because of THIS issue, I say you’re lying or completely disingenuous.
so which is it?

Posted by: jen | October 29, 2006, 12:24 pm 12:24 pm

I am voting Democratic in this election, not because the Democrats are a whole lot better than the Republicans, but because they can’t possibly be worse. It is all about money and greed and power. I seriously doubt that many of these politicians give a damn about religion or sex or dying Iraqiis….they give a damn about power and money and they will use whatever means they have to hold on to both. When I saw the newscast of Bush saying “stay the course” some 27 times it was so clear. This man is a puppet. He is the voice of the monied few who control the country and who manipulate the electorate through the kind of stupidity that is so clearly demonstrated in these exerpts from the Virginia election. We seem to be in the last days of the Roman Republic. Will the next president have the power to appoint his horse to the Senate, as happened in Imperial Rome?

Posted by: David Ammerman | October 29, 2006, 5:56 pm 5:56 pm

May be PREZ. Reagan had dementia to elect such a person as his NAVY Secretary!!!!! If The GIPPER can be wrong VIRGINIANs can be wrong and ELECT WEBB!!!!! So Allen its time for you to GO!!!!!!!

Posted by: raul | October 29, 2006, 6:11 pm 6:11 pm

So if George Allen were running against Sophacles, no doubt he’d trot out the “disturbing” passages about incest or, if against Picasso, the artist’s worrisome tendencies toward female dismemberment, eh?
What a disingenuous clown!
BTW, Greg C. (of the liberal media conspiracy school), the notion that these passages were neferiously “discovered” as you suggest is laughable. They’ve been sitting there in several top selling novels for years. The only news angle is that the Allen campaign decided to raise them in a hail Mary attempt to bolster a flagging campaign and it is getting exactly the page A22 treatment it deserves.
Now if Webb had, say, let it slip at a campaign rally something that suggested pretty clearly that he is a paedophile (and not a novelist whose works were informed by some pretty scary stuff he saw in war zones) that would be a different (and front page!) story.

Posted by: Poindexter | October 30, 2006, 4:50 am 4:50 am

This is yet another insult for the Vietnam generation. They fought for this country in an unwinnable, unpopular meat grinder of a war–many of them because they were conscripted to do so–and now that they are standing up against the so-called Patriots in the Republican party, they are being systematically smeared by those who were either to young or too afraid to experience what they went through. What a shameful mess the Republican party has become.

Posted by: glacialspeed | October 30, 2006, 9:30 am 9:30 am

If Agatha Christie ran for office, she would probrably be smeared as advocating murder based on her mysteries. The Republicans in attacking Mr. webb’s book have stoped to a new low.

Posted by: Phil Mayer | October 30, 2006, 1:28 pm 1:28 pm

Isn’t it ironic that the first poster couldn’t even stick to the story that they were commenting on? That’s why the people trapped in the middle find themselves surrounded by irate, irrational and off topic people.

Posted by: Kate | October 31, 2006, 10:23 am 10:23 am

When did perversion become literature? I don’t care what party you belong to, filth will always be filth even when served on fine china. It seems as though “free speech” has gotten a black eye when perversion is the norm. It amazes me that childrens books like “Little Black Sambo” are more dangerous than filth and perversion. political correctness is more important than quality. Required reading is ridiculous. No one should be allowed to call smut,”brilliant writing”. i am apalled at what we now consider good reading. No one should be holding an office of any kind that thinks any of this is right and normal, or something of value. Crap is still crap even if there is gold embedded in it!

Posted by: Yvonne | October 31, 2006, 7:48 pm 7:48 pm

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