Webb's Weird World

In a campaign that has been nothing but a continuous personal attack on Sen. George Allen (R-VA) by Jim Webb (D-VA) and his surrogates, the tables have been turned. Turns out that Mr. Webb has penned several fictional novels about war, which would be completely fine, had they not included erotic passages involving incest, pedophilia, and other publicly taboo topics. I will spare you the actual passages quoted in the Allen campaign's press release, but you can find them at the Drudge Report. Anyhow, Mr. Webb is outraged that Mr. Allen has apparently made attacks of a, "baseless, personal," nature, when that has been the basis for Mr. Webb's entire campaign. His response was essentially to call it a, "Karl Rove campaign," and accuse Mr. Allen of, "having no record to run on." Right, because I usually call years of public service and achievement having no record. He also, in turn, attacked Lynne Cheney's literary work; last time I checked she was not running for any office, especially a Senate seat from Virginia. I would suggest that Mr. Webb should not be indignant against such attacks, or upset about the campaign for the US Senate seat moving away from real issues, when he has done nothing to run a campaign based on issues. It is despicable, further, to say, in effect, that my personal life and work are off-limits, but that Mr. Allen's should be my daily fodder. Furthermore, Mr. Allen is by no means going out of bounds in using literary work of his opponent. If everyone will remember, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) was castigated for passages included in his recent works. Secondly, if you write and publish it, I would say that constitutes fair game. Mr. Webb also objected to the informing of voters about his own racially insensitive remarks by Mr. Allen, after the Webb campaign spending weeks on Allen's own past remarks. Virginians, and on the larger scale, should not put up with this attitude of, "Do as I say, not as I do." Sen. Allen looks to be in position to win re-election at this point, although the muddy nature of the campaign will probably have severe implications for any 2008 run at the Presidency.