Webb: Reading My Writing is a "'Line That Should Never Be Crossed"

The Washington Post reports:

Virginia U.S. Senate candidate James Webb yesterday delivered his strongest criticism of incumbent Sen. George Allen of the fall campaign, vigorously defending himself against Allen's charges that he wrote sex-laced passages in his fiction novels.

He called on voters to reject what he called the "smear tactics" of Allen and his campaign, who released excerpts Thursday from Webb's novels to the Drudge Report Web site and said the writings were lurid and inappropriate for a man seeking to serve in the Senate.

...

"When George Allen and his campaign take some small excerpts from my novels and not only criticizes them but uses them to question my ethics, my profession, my character, that is a line that should never be crossed," Webb said at Edgar Allen Poe Middle School in Annandale.

Webb is really really whiny for a candidate who tries to portray himself as a tough guy. He sounds more like he belongs in middle school than politics. (And he hasn't explained the relationship between child molestation and combat yet either.)

Senator Allen explains it best:

Allen, speaking to reporters near Richmond yesterday after winning the endorsement of the National Rifle Association's political action committee, said Webb's career as an author of fictional works was part of his record.

"My record as a United States senator is an open book. My opponent has a record as well," Allen told reporters. "He, in his advertisements, points out that he's an author, that he's a writer of books. That's part of his record. These passages in his books are part of his open record. I'll let the people of Virginia be the judge as to whose record they are more comfortable with."

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