Six years ago today, remember this classic from conservative commentator George Will?
But Allen, who makes no secret of finding life as a senator tedious, is fighting ferociously for another term, a fate from which his Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, is close to rescuing him. As a result, Allen is dabbling in literary criticism. He has read, or someone has read for him, at least some of Webb’s six fine novels, finding therein sexual passages that have caused Allen — he of the football metaphors, cowboy regalia and Copenhagen smokeless tobacco — to blush like a fictional Victorian maiden and fulminate like an actual Victorian man, Anthony Comstock, the 19th-century scourge of sin who successfully agitated for New York and federal anti-obscenity statutes and is credited with the destruction of 160 tons of naughty printed matter and pictures.
Webb, a highly decorated Marine veteran of Vietnam combat, includes sexual scenes in his fictional depictions of young men far from home and close to combat, something about which he knows a lot and Allen does not. Allen says the scenes are demeaning to women and are evidence of flaws in Webb’s character.
This ham-handed grab for women’s votes may help Allen win but will not help him escape the perception that, as a presidential aspirant, he is problematic…
Hey, George Will might be a right-wing tool, but he nailed it on this one. (Also check out John Grisham unloading on Allen for his “desperate campaign”).
While we’re on this subject, check out the video (from 10/28/06) of Jim Webb ripping Allen for having “nothing to report,” and for that reason making “smears” (Webb also referred to Allen and company as “unprincipled, small-minded, power hungry character assassins“) the centerpiece of his campaign. Webb specifically called out Allen for attacking his “faith” and his “character.” Webb continued ripping into Allen in ways that Tim Kaine is far too nice to do, but that’s refreshing to recall because none of Webb’s characterization of Allen was incorrect, nor has it changed with the passage of 6 years:
I’ve lived in the real world. I fought in a real war and I saw it ugliness while George Allen was hanging out at a dude ranch! I have written about what I have seen. That is the duty of a writer…George Allen might understand this if he read books. George Allen doesn’t read books. Someone said that I’ve WRITTEN more books than George Allen has READ!
In sum, George Allen was a pathetic, cringe-inducing embarrassment to Virginia in 2006, and he remains a pathetic, cringe-inducing embarrassment to Virginia today. This coming Tuesday, let’s send him back to his “career” having pathetically lame football metaphor books ghost written for him, and of course shilling for Big Oil. What a guy.
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
