Jim Webb: Vile or Victim?

As my mom and I (Hi Mom! xoxoxox) discussed, the excerpts from Jim Webb's books as viewed on the Drudge Report are troubling, indeed. Webb had seemed like a better candidate than his opponent, George Allen, right up until Drudge splashed the big, ugly headline last Thursday. Readers were compelled to conclude from the Drudge excerpts that Webb was downright pervy, if only for the one scene from Lost Soldiers between a Vietnamese father and his four year old son.

Now, I like fiction and I like sex (certainly I have no problem with the two in any combination) but one had to wonder when reading those two and a half sentences from Lost Soldiers just exactly what was wrong with Jim Webb.

So imagine my surprise to read this from conservative blogger John Cole. Had I fallen for one of Drudge's infamous hit and run slanders?

Next I was amazed to find one of the Drudge excerpted books, Fields of Fire, on the United States Marine Corp Professional Reading Program list (as linked all over the blogosphere at this point). From the USMC site:

James Webb. a well-known Marine Corps Navy Cross recipient in Vietname and former Secretary of the Navy, conveys the experience of combat with rare lucidity through fiction. In fact, Fields of Fire is less fictional than most realize. It is the Vietnam War as the author lived it, and the reader sees and feels it through the eyes of the book's main character, a platoon commander in Company D, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines.

The novel is about the reality of war that Marines must come to grips with today as we prepare for the future. Fields of Fire is the story of the young, enlisted Marines who fought under then Lieutenant Webb. The reader should note carefully their emotions, motivations, courage, and fears for they are the men who have served us best in every war. Their social backgrounds vary, and many of our best warriors came from the lowliest of stations. In terms of the brotherhood of those who bleed together and the nobility of sacrifices made for friends, the characters in Webb's novel are timeless. He succeeds brilliantly in making them real. Webb creates a doctrine of combat leadership and a creed for the succeeding generation on how and why Marines fight.

Could be that the GOP is desperate to undermine Webb's reputation. Watch Fox News Military Analyst Col. Hunt fawn over Webb's military background to see why (follow the link and click on Video-WMP).

Relentless war hawk, The Bull Moose, chimes in.

I'm starting to suspect a hatchet job, Mom. What do you think?