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.
Good post, but it is still fun to see the Democrats caught in their own...webb.
Now where does your party stand on these issues? They want socialism, they want higher taxes, they want abortion on demand, they want liberal activist judges to destroy the moral fiber of our society, they want a bill of right of terrorists and they are very weak on every issue of national security. I do not even know what are you doing on this Conservative and Republican forum when you are member of a liberal socialist treasonous party.
I'm all for going for the jugular. IMO, the GOPers should be calling these democrats traitors, and saying Murtha and Kucinich and Mcdermott etc should be hanged for treason. Someone's fiction in a book is less than compelling to me, and mimics the dems weak smear tactics. Don't nip at their ankles, punch them in the gut and call a spade a spade.
"I do not even know what are you doing on this Conservative and Republican forum when you are member of a liberal socialist treasonous party."
FR is a conservative website. It is not a Republican website per se. I suspect that 90%+ of FReepers are Republicans. There are also some Libertarians, some Constitution party folks, some independents and a very small handful of (unzotted) Democrats.
I happen to have a conservative political philosophy. But I'm not a Republican for reasons that would take me pages to explain. I doubt you'd be interested, and I really don't have the time to write it.
If the moderators and Mr. Robinson didn't want me to be able to post on this website, I have no doubt that they would have tossed me off of it long ago. Who knows, maybe they just haven't gotten around to it. I obey the FR rules, I try to be polite, and I debate those who wish to debate conservative ideas. I'm sorry if you find that offensive.
I do not want you to be banned because as you said you have not posted anything offensive. However I am questioning your judgment. You claim you are a conservative and yet you belong to a left wing socialist treasonous party called the democrat party. You do not make sense what so ever.
Leni
Regards, Ivan
I believe they also did the same thing with Newt Gingrich and Bill O'Reilly.
Ah -- here I disagree. That, to me, is an example of why the Ds are not up to a down-n-dirty political fight.
I believe the *right* thing to do in that situation is for the individual to 'take one for the team'. What the Ds do, like with Clinton, may benefit that one individual and damage the entire party.
To me, that's evidence that the D party is a collection of individuals, going against a 'team'.
Believe me, I have many, many problems with the R party. About the only thing I *do* agree with them on is support for the war.
But I'd say the success of the Rs over the last 12 years proves they're the ones who handle the infighting of politics better.
The passages themselves are fiction, but Webb's responses to this, trying to justify incestuous acts as cultural, will flatten him.
"The passages themselves are fiction, but Webb's responses to this, trying to justify incestuous acts as cultural, will flatten him."
I've been reading this whole thread to see if someone would make this point. Webb during a radio interview claimed that the father's actions with his son's penis were NOT sexual, but merely a custom of the country.
This alone demonstrates his lack of principles and judgment. It is a sexual act, and should be condemned. Proof of multiculturism run amok, and Webb should not win a senate seat!
The reason Lynne Cheney's writings are more important than Jim Webb's are because she is married to a REPUBLICAN. Therefore anything she does is 100 times more evil.
"Not only is the man/boy sex over the line"
I agree with you...there is no room in our world for this kind of perversion, fiction or not.
"However I am questioning your judgment. You claim you are a conservative and yet you belong to a left wing socialist treasonous party called the democrat party. You do not make sense what so ever."
Again, I don't have the time or the inclination to write the polemic I'd need to write to fully explain. Political parties exist to get their members elected to political office. They're a means to an end, not the end in itself. Both major political parties contain people of numerous different philosophical stripes. There are conservatives in the Democratic party. There are leftists in the GOP.
To date, I haven't viewed the GOP as an effective vehicle for accomplishing the conservative political philosophy that I ascribe to. It's hard for someone who is not actually a Democrat to recognize that conservatives within the Democratic party have influence. Even though conservatives are definitely an endangered species in the Democratic party, we still act as something of a brake on the radical left.
Much of the reason why the Nancy Pelosi's and the Howard Dean's and all the other characters that conservatives love to dislike are in power is because the philosophical conservatives left the party in droves in the 1980's. They radical left stepped in and filled the power vacuum.
I will say that my thinking with regards the GOP is changing. This election has shown that at least when cornered and their jobs are in danger, the GOP is capable of engaging in a political scrap. Now I wish the GOP would spend one fourth the effort they've spent in this election cycle to balance the budget, but at least we're seeing that the GOP has the capability, if not the will to do so.
She's a DC beltway hypocrite.
"Ah -- here I disagree. That, to me, is an example of why the Ds are not up to a down-n-dirty political fight.
I believe the *right* thing to do in that situation is for the individual to 'take one for the team'. What the Ds do, like with Clinton, may benefit that one individual and damage the entire party."
You have a very good point. And Newt Gingrich might actually be a good example of "taking one for the team." While he was essentially shown the door several years ago, it clearly didn't end his political career. His political star does seem on the rise of late.
Thanks for the post.
Just an honest question. *Not flaming} how can you be a CHristian (by your tagline) and identify yourself with the party of abortion, euthanasia, cloning, embryonic stem cell research, etc.
i have always wanted to honestly ask a Christian and a democrat that question.
I agree with Malkin and with you.
Pulpfiction,,that is what webb writes and people do read it.
If Allen were clever, he would let others make it an issue but make Webb and object of ridicule,,the man writes like a 13 year old with too much testosterone.
Malkin is right on this.
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