Jim Webb today confirmed the obvious:

“It’s not a sexual act,” Webb told Plotkin regarding the “Lost Soldiers” excerpt. “I actually saw this happen in a slum in Bangkok when I was there as a journalist.”

“The duty of a writer is to illuminate the surroundings,” he added.

Meanwhile, Allen continues to swing away, declaring that the passages are indicative of Webb’s “bad character:”

Allen’s aides, who have been trying to get other news organizations to write about the excerpts for weeks, issued statements saying that the fictional scenes in Webb’s novels reflect poorly on Webb’s personal character and fitness for office.

Allen told reporters after a campaign stop in Harrisonburg that Webb’s books are demeaning to women. “My opponent hasn’t been in public office,” he said. “But he talks about the books he’s written and his creative writing, his novels. Those are some of his writings. . . . People can make that judgment.”

This line is particulalry rich:

Allen’s aides would not say whether the senator had read Webb’s books.

I’d bet my right arm that means he hasn’t. Which means Allen doesn’t give a damn about context or appropriateness.

Meanwhile, alleged libertarian and Allen campaign Internet guy John Henke emails Glenn Reynolds to offer up an even lamer variation on the ol’ “But Clinton…” defense: This is all perfectly appropriate because Keith Olberman once made fun of Scotter Libby’s books (Henke neglects to mention that the entire Olberman segment was in jest — not that it should matter, because Olberman is a TV personality, he is not Jim Webb). I hope John was at least embarassed for himself when he wrote that email.

One other thing: Some people are suggesting that the Webb campaign had this coming, and that Webb deserves to be labeled a pervert because he engaged in these kinds of tactics first.

Please. This isn’t remotely comparable to the Webb campaign, the Democrats, or Allen’s opponents making an issue of “macaca,” Allen’s weird fondness for the Confederacy, or his clumsy ethinc insensitivity. The “macaca” incident in particular was ugly. Allen singled out for ridicule the only dark-skinned person in a room full of good ol’ boys, called him an epithet loaded with racial connotations, then, for good measure, derisively added the rather nativist line, “Welcome to America.” Sorry. But that most certainly does speak to the man’s character. Even National Review’s Rich Lowry at the time called the mistake unforgiveable, and indicative of Allen’s “mean streak.”

This is the Allen campaign trying to score cheap political points off things we ought to admire about Webb: That the guy has seen the world, that he’s a war hero, that he’s an accomplished author and Emmy-winning journalist, and yeah, that his writing recounts his experiences in vivid detail, sometimes raw and unsanitized.

One more thing: Lest these polemics give the wrong impression, no, I don’t believe Jim Webb is anywhere near a perfect candidate. I could run off a long list of things I find objectionable about him. I’m not defending him on these particular charges because I want him to win — though I do, mostly because I think Allen is far worse. I’m defending Webb because this is one of the more contemptible things I’ve ever seen in a campaign.

And the depressing thing is, it’ll probably work.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 27th, 2006 at 10:28 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.