Saturday, October 28, 2006
Webb defends imagery in novels
U.S. Sen. George Allen attacked his opponent's fiction works as being "demeaning to women."
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From The Roanoke Times
RICHMOND -- Locked in a tough battle to keep his seat in the U.S. Senate, Republican George Allen is attacking Democratic challenger James Webb for using sexually graphic language and imagery in critically acclaimed novels published over the past three decades.
Webb lashed back on Friday, accusing Allen of resorting to smear tactics to divert attention from the Iraq war and other critical issues in a close election contest that is drawing national attention.
Allen's campaign extracted provocative excerpts from five of Webb's six novels and compiled them in a statement accusing him of assigning "base, negative characteristics" to women. The excerpts were provided to Fox News Channel and the online Drudge Report on Thursday.
Allen, campaigning in Harrisonburg on Friday, said Webb's fiction writing is fair game for scrutiny as voters make up their minds about the Nov. 7 election.
"My opponent hasn't been in public office, but he talks about the books he's written and his creative writing and his novels," Allen said, according to The Associated Press.
"Those are some of his writings. That's an open book so people can make that judgment."
Asked if he had read any of Webb's books, Allen said: "From those excerpts I read, they certainly are demeaning to women."
Allen's campaign also released a critical statement from Kay James, who served as a Cabinet secretary in Allen's gubernatorial administration.
"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 nonfiction writings?" James said. "More importantly, what type of mind commits these thoughts to paper -- in such graphic detail?"
The passages Allen deemed objectionable appear in military-themed fictional works such as "Lost Soldiers," "A Sense of Honor" and "Fields of Fire," which is widely regarded as the definitive novel of the Vietnam War. Webb is a decorated Vietnam veteran who served a stint as secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration.
Webb, appearing on Washington Post Radio on Friday morning, accused Allen's campaign of singling out the fictional passages without regard for the context of the books.
"To pull excerpts out and force them on people ... is just a classic example of the way this campaign has worked," Webb said. "It's smear after smear."
Webb said that he had nothing in his novels that "hasn't been either illuminating the surroundings or defining the character or moving the plot."
Webb objected when one of the passages, which describes a stripper performing a graphic act with a banana, was read on the air. But he explained his use of such imagery by saying: "There are hundreds of thousands of American servicemen who have been in that environment. It's an observation about how the human species lives."
This was not the first time Webb's writing has been used against him in the campaign. Allen's campaign continues to assail Webb for a 1979 magazine article titled "Women Can't Fight," in which Webb criticized the admission of women to the U.S. Naval Academy and argued that women were unfit for combat. Webb has said he regrets aspects of the article and is "comfortable" with the roles women now have in the military.
Webb said that Vice President Cheney's wife, Lynne, wrote a novel containing lesbian love scenes, a claim that Lynne Cheney angrily disputed in a CNN interview on Friday.
In responding to Allen's accusations about demeaning women, Webb said: "You ought to read what George Allen's sister wrote about him if you want to read about attitudes toward women."
Jennifer Allen's 2000 book "Fifth Quarter" contained some unflattering depictions of her oldest brother during their time growing up together. Among other things, Allen's sister wrote that he once dragged her up the stairs of their home by her hair.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee came to Webb's defense, circulating a press release summarizing racy scenes in novels penned by GOP luminaries such as Newt Gingrich and former Cheney aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Webb strategist Steve Jarding fired off a memo asserting that Allen has "not earned the right to question Jim Webb's wartime experiences, from the ugliness of combat to the ugliness of what happens to civilians in nations ravaged by war.
"And senator, you would not know this, but, war is demeaning, war is repugnant," Jarding wrote.
"Senator, Jim Webb wrote of things he witnessed. They may have been ugly, but we should learn from their ugliness about the consequences of our votes and actions before we send men and women into war."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
