A Blog For All - Comments - Keep it civil
This is the first I have heard this story. This really sounds bad for Webb. I suppose the liberal news media isn't going to get too concerned about this issue since it is against one of their own.
The reason this won't hurt Webb, but could damage Allen, is Webb is protected by none other than Dick Cheney's, (Ex-Chief of Staff), Scooter Libby.
Libby wrote a novel, "The Apprentice", that has 10 year old girls being raped by bears in a cage so to train the girls for sex with adults.
Goes right into the White House corrupt morality idea.
Plus, John McCain likes the novel and has stated so.
Allen just may have stepped on a land mine planted by Scooter Libby.
I don't know the people trying to get Allen re-elected, but they are being quite stupid.
Allen would be better served if he had people who wanted him to talk about real issues.
The reason it wont hurt Webb is that the books are works of FICTION!!! He is not condoning the acts, he wrote books that he wanted to sell. This is not a scandle, its writting. Give me a break, its a non-story!
Jumped over to Michele Malkin's site after posting this, she makes a good point, forget the fiction, Webb's non-fiction writting is scarry enough.
http://www.webbagainstwomen.com/...om/
default.aspx
Attack him on his views, attack him on his "factual" writting, don't attack him for works of fiction.
"Some think that it's fiction..."
Umm, what do the rest think? This is a truly ridiculous story, but it's hilarious to see people on the right get all worked up about it. The funniest part, to me, is that it gives Webb a great opportunity to talk about the Mark Foley scandal which, of course, "some think" was NOT fiction.
This is a truly desperate (and stupid) move on the part of the Allen campaign. Did they not notice that sex scandals make democrats more, not less, popular? (See Studds, Clinton, Frank, etc.)
Your suggestion that Democrats who called for Hastert's ouster might "call on Virginia Democrats...to call on Webb to withdraw" is perhaps the stupidest thing I've read this morning (and I've been reading right-wing blogs all morning). You can't really think a FICTIONAL work depicting FICTIONAL "salacious" scenes is on par with an incident involving a REAL congressman seducing REAL little boys...do you?
I'm not totally confident that Webb wins this thing, but if he loses it won't be because of this. Virginia's electorate isn't as stupid as you wish they were. Most people understand that difference between fiction and nonfiction.
A new low? For Allen, maybe.
Nick,
Thanks for your comments, but I posed the initial two paragraphs as a rhetorical flourish - and noted that it wasn't going to happen, not when this stuff had to (or should have been) common knowledge for more than 2 decades. The first book was published in 1983.
I happen to agree with you that there isn't much there there. Somehow, sex scandals involving Democrats tend to make them more popular, instead of less. However, it can still be quite effective.
However, I think that Allen wins because VA is more red than you give it credit for, and Webb's other statements - including his nonfiction pieces as cited above, and his positions on some of the issues do not put him in a good position.
I just think you can throw Webb's fictional books into the same category as Hillary's plastic surgery (man she deserves a refund), and about a zillion other personal attacks on candidtates from both sides of the aisle over the years. The elections have become boring mud wrestling matches.
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