What's disgraceful is the idea that somebody who has served in the military is automatically immune to criticism.
Webb's adult son volunteered for the military. I'm not sure how that really has much of anything to do with Webb. I respect HIS SON for leaving college to serve his country, but that neither adds nor subtracts anything from Webb.
Webb's service to Reagan is nowhere near as flowery as you make it, and there are a plethora of sources to indicate he wasn't exactly well-liked in his post.
Webb won primarily because of the macaca incident, which served to further fuel the Washington Post's jihad on George Allen. Webb ran on no particular issue and his campaign was rather dull and boring - commercials consisted mostly of "George Allen = George Bush" and the like.
Also, having read hundreds upon hundreds of fiction books from all genres, I have never come across a book that contains a description of pedophilia or incest (let alone both). When you put your name to the cover of a book that contains that, you open yourself up to criticism. Deal with it.
If you're still going to bury your head in the sand about this, please show me where people criticized Webb for his military service.
"Webb won primarily because of the macaca incident, which served to further fuel the Washington Post's jihad on George Allen. Webb ran on no particular issue and his campaign was rather dull and boring - commercials consisted mostly of "George Allen = George Bush" and the like."
I agree. I also think that the Dems were looking for the exact right vehicle to defeat republicans on war in Iraq, and a non-liberal anti-Iraq-war military man was their best shot. Allen would have beaten any conventional democrat that ran IMHO.
On this however ...
"I have never come across a book that contains a description of pedophilia or incest (let alone both)." ... it must have backfired on Allen, he had a close lead in mid-October but end of October Webb pulled ahead ... compare with eg Corker.
Go figure. Democrats must not mind porn writers in the Senate. Or maybe it smacked of below-the-belt (you see, only the Democrats and media are allowed to bring up irrelevent old cr8p and call it 'news').
In 2000, Allen won by 4 points against Robb.
Yes, he should have done better, but he is a good politician who can and should get back in the game, so long as he, like other Republican leaders, learns from this year.