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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (752666)	10/27/2006 8:41:03 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Allen: Webb's Books Show Bad Character Webb Allies Defend Novels as Works of Imagination By Michael D. Shear and Tim Craig Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, October 27, 2006; 3:36 PM RICHMOND, Oct. 27 -- Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) has accused his Democratic opponent, James Webb, of using lurid sex scenes and demeaning descriptions of women in his novels, the latest character attack in a close campaign. With 11 days remaining before election day, the allegations about sex-laced passages in Webb's writings injected a new question into a campaign that has largely centered on character issues: Should the author of a fictional work who runs for office be personally held to account for the scenes in his books? Audio Webb Discusses Tight Senate Race Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb (D) joins Mark Plotkin to answer questions about his campaign against George Allen (R). Post Survey Allen's once sizable lead has been whittled away, especially in the Washington suburbs, as he and Webb have battled over Iraq, character and race. Washington Post News Poll Read Post Analysis of News Poll Graphic: What Matters To Voters Graphic: Marriage Amendment Graphic: The Transportation Issue Transcript: Bob Barnes Q & A Online Resources Key Race: U.S. Senate, Virginia Full Coverage of Allen, Webb Mixed Messages Browse 2006 Political Ads Local Politics Chat Beltway and Beyond Latest Headlines Virginia Politics Coverage In Depth Regional Coverage Read the latest analysis of Maryland, Virginia and D.C. key races. » COMPLETE COVERAGE Save & Share Article What's This? DiggGoogle del.icio.usYahoo! Reddit Allen campaign officials provided sentences from Webb's novels -- some of them depicting acts of incest and graphic sexuality -- to the Drudge Report Web site Thursday night. Matt Drudge's online report often breaks or promotes stories with a sensational angle, most recently the scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) Allen aides, who have been trying to get other news organizations to write about the excerpts for weeks, issued statements saying that the fictional scenes from Webb's novels reflect poorly on Webb's personal character and fitness for office. "How can women trust Jim Webb to represent their views in the Senate when chauvinistic attitudes and sexually exploitative references run throughout his fiction and non-fiction writings?" said Kay James, an Allen campaign adviser. "More importantly, what type of mind commits these thoughts to paper -- in such graphic detail?" Webb responded angrily on Washington Post Radio Friday morning, defending his novels as "serious" works and calling Allen's attack part of a "Karl Rove" campaign that is devoid of ideas. Rove is President Bush's top political strategist. Webb's novels, such as "Lost Soldiers," "Something to Die For" and "Fields of Fire," are historical novels that describe wartime horrors in Vietnam and soldiers dealing with the aftermath of war. Webb is a decorated former Marine who served in the Vietnam War. "To take these things out and pull excerpts out and force them on people . . . is just a classic example of the way this campaign is run," Webb said. "Literature is literature. I've made my career as a novelist. George Allen doesn't have a record to run on." Webb said the graphic scenes in his novels, many of which are set in wartime, do not reflect the complete books. He said he has written about disturbing scenes that he has witnessed on the battlefield or as a journalist traveling throughout Southeast Asia.

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (752666)	10/27/2006 9:09:58 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Webb Says His Novels 'Inappropriate' for News Radio By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Staff Writer October 27, 2006 (Editor's note: Corrects quote in the 10th paragraph.) (CNSNews.com) - In an interview on Washington Post Radio Friday morning, Jim Webb, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Virginia, said excerpts of his novels are "a little bit inappropriate" to be read on news radio. "I don't know why you're reading that on WTOP," Webb told host Mark Plotkin. "I think it's a little bit inappropriate." Plotkin was reading an excerpt from Webb's novel "Something to Die For," in which Webb describes a female stripper performing sexual acts with a banana. "I don't think that's appropriate for you to read on WTOP," Webb said again as Plotkin finished the excerpt. (Washington Post Radio is WTOP's sister station.) The campaign of Republican Sen. George Allen on Thursday released excerpts from some of the war novels Webb wrote between 1978 and 2002. The books include some graphic sexual passages, as well as frequent uses of a racial slur for blacks and descriptions of Vietnamese women as "monkey-faced." Among the excerpts is a scene from the 2002 novel "Lost Soldiers," in which a man embraces his four-year-old son and places the boy's penis in his mouth. Webb said the release of the excerpts was "a Karl Rove campaign tactic" and a "classic example of the way this campaign has worked. It's smear after smear." He defended his fiction as "illuminative." "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. Coincidentally, a Cambodian woman in Las Vegas is facing sexual assault charges for performing a similar act on her young son, according to an Oct. 14 report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The article quotes an office manager for the Cambodian Association of America, who described the act as a sign of respect or love. "It's an exception," Thira Srey told the Review-Journal of the practice. According to the report, the act is usually performed by a mother or caretaker on a child who is one year old or younger. In Webb's novel, the child is four years old. Webb criticized the Allen campaign for focusing on excerpts from his novels. "The most important issue facing the country, he hasn't got a statement to make on it," Webb said of the Iraq war. "This country's been breaking into pieces economically ... they've got no position on that.