Smutgate: Drudge nukes Webb with pedo passage from novel
Allahpundit

Technically it’s the Allen camp that nuked him by issuing the press release, but come on. Who has the launch codes? Who’s the one capable of putting this into media orbit?

A few thoughts.

1. In Webb’s defense, American ass is, in fact, an important product.

2. Yes, “ma-cock-a.” I get it. No need for further e-mails.

3. John Hawkins broke this story ten days ago ...

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Politics and pulp fiction
Michelle Malkin

Remember how pathetic it was when the Left tried to make scandals out of books written by Lynne Cheney and Scooter Libby?

Cheney wrote a pulpy novel, "Sisters," about a frontier woman that included graphic sexual passages and lesbian lovers. (A conservative-bashing site reprinted excerpts here.)

Libby wrote a pulpy novel, "The Apprentice," a "story of innocence and temptation" set in turn-of-the-century Japan that included graphic sexual passages--including bestiality and a scene in which the brothers of a dead samurai have sex with his daughter.

Both were works of fiction. You know, stuff that's made up.

Now, the George Allen campaign has detonated its October surprise using the same tactics as Cheney's and Libby's critics--attacking the fiction of his Democrat opponent, James Webb via an official "press release" sent to the Drudge Report last night. Are the passages in Webb's "Lost Soldiers" bizarre and perverted? Yes. But they are no more proof of Webb's immorality and unfitness for office than the passages in "Sisters" are proof that Lynne Cheney hates men or that the passages in "The Apprentice" are proof that Scooter Libby endorses sex between children and bears. ...

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Audio: Webb responds to Smutgate charges on WaPo radio
Allahpundit

Highlights from the Politics Program with Mark Plotkin. I speculated last night that the pedo passage might have been inspired by some obscure cultural practice Webb observed while he lived in southeast Asia. According to him, that’s exactly what it was.

The clip is edited, but fairly represents what he said. I had to cut the bit after Webb called Plotkin’s reading of one sex scene on air “inappropriate.” Plotkin replied that he simply wanted to give Webb a chance to explain why he includes these scenes in his books. Webb accepted that.

E.M. read the CNS article and thinks Webb dug himself a bigger hole. Having listened to it, I think he dug himself out. Judge for yourself. ...