Posted on 10/27/2006 5:44:03 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
WASHINGTON - Several conservative web sites are reporting a potentially explosive development in the campaign for the Virginia Senate seat.
Sites, including The Drudge Report, have pointed out several sexually graphic excerpts found in some of Webb's novels, including "Lost Soldiers." The sites are raising concerns about Webb's own character and his attitude toward women.
Drudge claims the information came from a news release, as provided by George Allen's campaign. WTOP has not been able to independently verify that the Allen camp sent the release.
Webb joins WTOP's Mark Plotkin this morning at 10 a.m. on the Politic's Program on Washington Post Radio at 107.7 FM and 1500 AM.
Let's even forget about children. Would you comfortable giving them to any respectable adult? Your mother? Your father? sister? friend?
"No it makes them look like they picked up the shit flung at them and tossed it back. "
There's plenty of non-fiction stuff on Webb that the campaign can toss at him - and have been fairly effectively. Having to reach to fictional stories is desperate.
Ted Kennedy? Barney Frank? Gerry Studds?
They don't write pornography ... the live it.
(No, it's not acceptable ...)
[Voice over TV ad] "Now, just in time for Christmas giving, the Jim Webb collection in this specially designed box set."
A difference that can't be overlooked: the FCC censors broadcast television in radio. No federal body censors the written word.
Had Webb simply been prone to including steamy adult sex in his work, I'd never have questioned it. But while I believe he has the right to write the way he does, the fact that his work is peppered with graphic perversion should rightly cause people to stop and think before voting him into the US Senate.
Sounds to me the man's political ideas should cause people to stop and think before voting him into the US Senate. What he wrote as a novelist should not enter into the equation . . . I'm sorry, but this really reeks of desperation from his opponent. This kind of "gotcha" politics should be beneath a political party that claims its ideas and integrity are better than that of its opponents.
If this book had been written by a Republican, Perky Katie would be frowning and wincing while reading passages on the Evening News and solemnly declaring that this man must not go to Washington "for the children."
Oprah would be interviewing psychologists about how this proves the Republican candidate is mentally unstable and unfit for office.
The NYT would be calling for an FBI investigation into the Republican candidate's background to ensure he has never actually engaged in such heinous acts.
The uproar would go on every day until the election and would make the Foley flap pale in comparison. I say turnabout's fair play.
His books contain highly horrid pedophilic scenes.
In the liberal world -- WORDS EQUAL RAPE.
Hastart's head should be on a platter for some words in IM's from a Republican (meaning... Hastart "raped" via party affiliation, a "youth"). Or Cindy Sheehan's "Bush killed my son".
Right now, Webb has or is obviously engaging in pedophilia, according to liberal "mind meld politics", and the politics of "personal destruction" wrought by Democrats. And Begala calls it "art".
In their world, Webb must be a pedophile to have authored such words.
We all now know that Mark Foley and the young Jordan were just co-authoring a book together in those IMS.
That's how it works.
It will be praised as great art.
Oh please. What he wrote came from his own mind. Moral people, although occasionally troubled by impure thoughts do not dwell on them and write about them in graphic detail. Moral people do not share any passing impure thoughts with others for the sake of book sales. What he wrote as a novelist is a testament to his [lack of] virtue.
"the FCC censors broadcast television in radio. No federal body censors the written word."
But that's really irrelevant, because the question was about whether or not it was possible to convey the concept without being unduly offensive.
"This kind of "gotcha" politics should be beneath a political party that claims its ideas and integrity are better than that of its opponents."
In today's climate I strongly disagree. We've got to become as fierce as our opponents. Moreover, as I pointed out, Webb's pattern of words and images are simply going to concern a lot of people. Put it this way; what if *every* book written by Webb contained graphic scenes of incest? How many books would he have to write before the public could legitimately begin to question his character, judgment, temperment, etc.?
good lets hope he stays as a novelist and not a porn writing senator
This truly is sick stuff. It should be told what he said.
What a crazy statement. Every gothic writer who ever penned a piece is without morality or virtue because they depicted the darker portions of the human soul? Every mystery writer who ever created a fictional gumshoe has no morals or virtue because they depicted human vice as well?Grasping at straws, Murph.
It must be bad news for Webb if they sent Begala out to play it down.
No. There are ways of depicting evil without being pornographic. Some authors can do this well, others just write to titillate.
No, it's exactly relevant because the FCC has established an artificial standard as to what is and what is not unduly offensive. Your television shows did not depict incestuous homosexual pedophilia in that manner because they were being upstanding, decent citizens---they depicted it in that way because that's the only way they can depict it without incurring a large FCC fine. Novelists don't have to worry about FCC fines, so they're not constrained by the same standards.
In today's climate I strongly disagree. We've got to become as fierce as our opponents.
Then we'll never break this cycle of retail politics we're mired in, and we'll always get crappy candidates, and we'll always lose good people who would have much to contribute if only they had led a squeaky-clean life since their quickening.
Moreover, as I pointed out, Webb's pattern of words and images are simply going to concern a lot of people. Put it this way; what if *every* book written by Webb contained graphic scenes of incest? How many books would he have to write before the public could legitimately begin to question his character, judgment, temperment, etc.?
Webb's not William S. Burroughs, no matter how hard you try to make the shoe fit.
The Washington Post and Jim Webb took this campaign into the gutter, and Allen is fighting them in the gutter.
Sometimes you have to get down to the snake's level and take them on.
The character doesn't seem to be integral to the story line. This character seems to only serve the purpose of being an obscene place marker.
I haven't read the book, but the only thing I can possibly come up with is that Webb was trying to stress the point that people surrounded by war become numb to even the most abhorrent sights among them. If that was what he was trying to point out and that's what he believes, then I think it says a lot about Webb as a person. Decent people do not lose their decency in war even if there are some things that are out of their control. No decent man is going to watch a scene like this and treat it non-chalantly no matter how many horrors of war he has been subjected to.
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