Oh, yes. The Anna Kournikova rule.
Posted on 10/27/2006 8:29:35 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Politics and pulp fiction
By Michelle Malkin · October 27, 2006 08:51 AM
Remember how pathetic it was when the Left tried to make scandals out of books written by Lynne Cheney and Scooter Libby?
Cheney wrote a pulpy novel, "Sisters," about a frontier woman that included graphic sexual passages and lesbian lovers. (A conservative-bashing site reprinted excerpts here.)
Libby wrote a pulpy novel, "The Apprentice," a "story of innocence and temptation" set in turn-of-the-century Japan that included graphic sexual passages--including bestiality and a scene in which the brothers of a dead samurai have sex with his daughter.
Both were works of fiction. You know, stuff that's made up.
Now, the George Allen campaign has detonated its October surprise using the same tactics as Cheney's and Libby's critics--attacking the fiction of his Democrat opponent, James Webb via an official "press release" sent to the Drudge Report last night. Are the passages in Webb's "Lost Soldiers" bizarre and perverted? Yes. But they are no more proof of Webb's immorality and unfitness for office than the passages in "Sisters" are proof that Lynne Cheney hates men or that the passages in "The Apprentice" are proof that Scooter Libby endorses sex between children and bears.
John Hawkins, who first highlighted Webb's fictional work here and here, does make a good point about media double standards:
It goes without saying that any Republican who wrote this sort of thing and ran for office would be absolutely ripped into a thousand pieces by the mainstream media. Of course, John's right.
Allah does him one better:
If George Allen had written this book, not only would the left be going berserk, they’d be circulating lists of characters in his other books whom they suspect of being gay. Heh.
I don't think, however, that the Allen campaign--couldn't they leave this to surrogates?--should be trafficking in this late October muck. It is beneath them and there's plenty else about Webb that is damning.
Like Webb's lying about leading the "fight" to include an African-American soldier in the Vietnam War soldier's memorial.
Or his non-fiction writing about women in the military.
And what happened to focusing on Webb's stance on taxes, as fiscal conservatives in Virginia have been urging?
Political strategists in the Beltway are exulting that "Webb is toast" as a result of this Drudge/Allen bomb. But if this what Republican Senate candidates need to do to win elections, I don't think any of us should be cheering.
Personally I think Allen was going to win anyway.
I'm to the point that I don't care what we have to do to win, short of doing anything illegal or fraudulent.
We CANNOT let the Dems take the House or Senate.
Bookmark
There in no playing this story down. Webb is gone.
I have to disagree with Ms. Malkin. The dems made Foley an issue in this campaign. This book is relevant to that issue. Secondly, this book is more than just a smutty novel. It contains passages to make pedophiles run to the store and buy it instantly.
The DemoRat party and their street-thug buddies, the MSM, are a living tabloid, but with far less credibility than the National Inquirer....
Note to self: Sanitize mind by re-reading Palliser novels.
When Hastert didn't do enough to protect the children of American from Foley (According to the DIMs and MSM), he was being implicated as a child molester. But, that is alright.
Webb is the actual author of the exerpts in question but we are to pass them over. No way.
Just my opinion....
LOL... but they're about dirty politics, too! They just seem more classy because they're British and over a century old. :)
Normal Virginia folk are going to make their decision on Webb and the matter in the privacy of the voting booth. No posturing by the media is going to help this man one iota.
Was about to say what is all the fuss about until I saw a couple of the excerpts. Sorry but anything that comes from one's mind as polluted as that doesn't need to be representing me and my family in the US Senate, end of story.
So the Senate is looking safe and the House is closing, but maybe not enough to cover the distance.
It won't be the end of the world but sometimes one setback is useful to reclaim your ideals and the Republicans could use that. So hold the Senate and we'll see what happens with the House.
I hate to disagree with a pretty woman.
But the main difference is that Lynn Cheney and Scotter Libby were not in policy making positions. Webb would be.
Lynn Cheney and Scooter Libby aren't running for the Senate.
BIG difference!
American politics is a blood sport. Always has been. You wnat to keep the rats from taking power? Get right down in the dirt with 'em.
The is a steel cage death match. There will be one winner and one loser. I want to be the winner.
Correcto! :)... KILLING INSTINC people!... show no mercy :)
This story is is beyond management at this point and will likely run hot for a day or two - it is so visceral (especially the one particular graphic scene) that I think you will see it affect the polls.
Michelle is wrong on this one.
Not only is the man/boy sex over the line, the entire body of Webb's work speaks to the same problem: Personal character.
The man's writing, taken as whole, shows who he is. He is unfit for office at any level.
Neither Lynn Cheney nor Scooter Libby were running for public office.
Their fitness is assessed by the person appointing them and the people's elected representatives.
Webb's fitness is assessed by the electorate.
But they are not vulgar and obscene, always a plus.
I'd like to raise a glass with Ollie North, the guy whom Webb went way out of his way to defeat when Col. Norte ran for the Senate. (They were Annapolis classmates).
1. Someone who writes fictional novels that have passages about oral sex with young boys should be put in a position as chief executive of ANY state in this GREAT NATION?
2. Especially when his own party is clamoring about a possible homosexual relationship between a congressman of the opposition party with a young congressional page and the opposition party bosses possibly covering it up?
I choose not to move on. Good stuff to know.
I'm not moving on Michelle. Democrats tried to make this election about sexual perversion because of Mark Foley, so let them have their election about sexual perversion. They didn't move on from Mark Foley, who frankly looks like an amateur in dirty talk compared to Webb the pervert, so we should not move on from this. I'm sick of letting these bastards play dirty then have people on our side tell us we shouldn't hit them back just as hard. Not to mention, Webb's filthy campaign did everything in its power to smear Allen and to fabricate things about his past and to even smear his family that somehow it's bad he has Jewish roots. Well f him! If that's the kind of campaign that pedophiliac racist woman hating loser Webb wanted to run then he had to expect pay back and now the little b-tch has gotten it! So don't tell us to move on Michelle. We get creamed by these people and their dirty politics and we're just suppose to be above it all? Forget it.
I agree with you there.... I love a good Trollope novel (watch our less literary Freepers make hay with THAT one), and am particularly partial to the Barsetshire series.
"chief executive of ANY state in this GREAT NATION?"
He's not running for governor, who is the chief executive of a state.
OOPs sorry. Correction to my post #22. - "Senator of ANY state in this GREAT NATION?"
"There in no playing this story down. Webb is gone."
There's no need to play it down. The story isn't being reported in Virginia. Nor do I think it will be, other than perhaps in the context of "Sen. Allen is slinging mud at the poor, innocent Jim Webb."
If Mr. Webb is smart, he'll take the cue from our lapdog Virginia newspapers and ignore this.
Rules????
>I'm sick of letting these bastards play dirty then have people on our side tell us we shouldn't hit them back just as hard.<
Someone on another thread pointed out how much good keeping above the fray did Bush41 in 1992. I think the person made a good point.
The Democrats have gone way over the top, attacking George Allen, with the most outrageous stuff imaginable this year. The reason is now clear. They have such a flawed candidate, the ONLY way they can win is to drag Allen down to their level.
And yes, that would go for Lynne Cheney and Scooter Libby, too.
Very simple...Lynn Cheney and Scooter Libby are not and were not running for office. Stevie Wonder could see that difference.
"This is a steel cage death match. There will be one winner and one loser. I want to be the winner."
Interesting to see the transition in the way that conservatives view politics.
One of the major reasons why I'm a Democrat and not a Republican (well, there are several reasons) is that Republicans just don't seem to have the stomach for the political fight.
After this election, I might be forced to re-evaluate that.
Any chance of you taking over your party???
Oh, yes. The Anna Kournikova rule.
Interesting -- I thought the conventional wisdom was that it's the other way around?
I don't see the Ds being very effective, to be honest. As unhappy as the conservative base is, the Ds should be guaranteed to sweep both houses. Yet they're scrapping, hoping to take one.
I just don't see the Ds as having the stomach for the real political fight on points. They seem primarily wrapped up in idealistic notions of "We're good, they're evil".
Maybe that's just me, tho.
I disagree with Michelle. Webb himself offered this window to his mind to the public. His mind is ugly and the voters, the vast majority of whom have never read his muck, have the right to know it.
. . . happened to be spot-on. However, that doesn't mean he isn't a smut-writing loon who shouldn't be Senator.
"Any chance of you taking over your party???"
LOL! You wouldn't want me.
In the short term, no.
In the medium to long term, I think that conservatism has a very bright future. For reasons that have little to do with contemporary politics. In my view, socialism suffers from a very obvious problem. In order to have socialism, you have to have a class of wealthy people who will pay the bulk of the bill. Socialism assumes assumes as a premise those wealthy people will simply stand still while they're forced to pay ever increasing levels of "contributions." I think that's a false premise. People are increasingly able to work from anywhere. That's not good news for socialists who need the wealthy to stay put.
I think that 20-30 years from now, both political parties (if they even still exist) will offer varying levels of what we'd identify as political conservatism.
They were focusing on macaca and we're not supposed to say anything about his books because they're fiction??? I fail to see the logic.
I usually agree with Malkin. This time, I think she's wrong.
I agree with Malkin. The matter should be dropped.
It may have been tactically clever to toss it out, since it obliged Webb to waste more time dealing with it than it took to raise it, it might sway a few voters, esp. in rural VA away from Webb and direct quotations from an opponent's writings aren't likely to push voters away as a dirty trick.
Still it's not worth spending more time on.
The Washington Post sure wasted a lot of ink trying to take Allen down. I guess now they have to go after Steele, but that may be a little more touchy.
"Interesting -- I thought the conventional wisdom was that it's the other way around?"
I think the current political situation is looking a lot like the movie Casablanca, with the Democrats being shocked, shocked! at the horrible things that the Republicans are saying.
Sticking to this one problem I have with the Republican party (amongst several), I don't think that historically speaking, Republicans have had much of a stomach for the fight. Contemporary American politics is waged on several levels; in the newspapers, the courts, the legislatures, the elections, the alternative media, the churches, etc. etc. Until the past few years, you've seen the GOP back away from those engagements, except perhaps in the alternative media and then again during the election cycle.
For example, how quickly do effective Republicans get thrown to the wolves when there's the first whiff of scandal? Contrast what happened with Gerry Studds versus what happened to Newt Gingrich. Do you honestly think that the Democratic party would be so hasty to pull a Newt Gingrich on one of their own? Especially one that was such an effective voice for the party?
No, the Republican Party (until very recently) has been the conscientious objectors of American politics. Shying away from from most political engagements, and essentially ceding the field to their opposition.
As I've noted, this election might force me to reconsider. But until I see some sustained intestinal fortitude out of the GOP, I'm going to prefer to have a Democratic division in front of me than a Republican division behind me.
What did he have to say about that?
Lynne Cheney and Scooter Libby were not running for the US Senate.
I am a voracious reader and certainly not a prude,but, I find Webb's gratuitous smut very troubling.
How is a father sucking his baby son's penis germane to the story ?
Doesn't anyone in the Democrat party understand due diligence ?
And how grotesque this stuff is ?
Nothing Foley wrote comes close to the perversion of Webb's words.
Webb is either so arrogant or so out of touch that he thought his paper trail would be ignored.
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