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mburbank · #1

I Should Be Supporting Allen. Instead, I'm Leaving the Party.
By Frank Schaeffer
The Dallas Daily News

Wednesday 01 November 2006

I'm a Christian, a writer, a military parent and a registered Republican.

On all those counts, I was disgusted by an e-mail I just received that's being circulated by campaign supporters of Republican George Allen, who's trying to retain his Senate seat in Virginia.

The message goes like this: "First, it was the Catholic priests, then it was Mark Foley, and now Jim Webb, whose sleazy novels discuss sex between very young teenagers.... Hmmm, sounds like a perverted pedophile to me! Pass the word that we do not need any more pedophiles in office."Democrat James Webb is a war hero and former Marine, wounded in Vietnam and winner of the Navy Cross. He was writing about class and military issues long before me and has articulated the issue of how the elites have dropped the ball on military service in his classic novel Fields of Fire. By the way, that's a book Tom Wolfe calls "the greatest of the Vietnam novels."

Mr. Webb's son is a Marine in Iraq. That's an uncommon fact in this era in which most political leaders' children act as if it is only right and proper that it's someone else's war to fight.

Mr. Webb also happens to be running against a desperate opponent supported by people who circulated the stupid e-mail, something that reminds me of a 2000 smear campaign aimed at another war hero, John McCain.

I never served in the military. It was my son's unexpected volunteering that connects me to the military family and to my country. And I've been voting Republican for years. My late father - Dr. Francis Schaeffer - was an evangelical theologian, friend to Jerry Falwell and White House guest of Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and the first President Bush.

I have nice handwritten letters from various members of the Bush family, including Barbara, thanking me for my books on military service. So I have every reason to stay in the Republicans' good graces. (It's nice to be complimented on television by the First Lady.)

But enough is enough. I've had it with Republican smears.

The Webb e-mail is the embodiment of the cynical Republican strategists, some of whom must know the difference between fiction and nonfiction. Was Agatha Christie a murderer because she wrote about murder?

According to the Allen camp's logic, God would be a pedophile, too. After all, we Christians believe God inspired the Bible. And God-the-author chose to include the "sleazy" story about Lot offering to send out his young virgin daughters to be raped by the men of Sodom.

The Bible has masturbation scenes, rape, pedophilia and God's favorite man - King David - warming himself with a young virgin in his old age. He's the same man God tells us committed murder after he indulged his peeping Tom fantasies.

Lucky for God-the-author that He's not running against George Allen.

I just got back from a visit to Parris Island and was struck again - as I was on the proud day of my son's boot camp graduation there as a Marine in 1999 - by the moral credibility of the drill instructors and selflessness of the recruits.

Our political leaders should learn from them. In fact, our future leaders should be them. We need to compare today's leaders to those of the past, who earned credibility beyond the reach of cynicism and irony - and cheap smear tactics.

People like Mr. McCain - who is "for" the war in Iraq - and Mr. Webb - who is "against" the war - should be respected no matter one's politics or ideas about the war. Why? Because they paid their dues.

My wife and I have reached the tipping point. We plan to go to town hall to dump our Republican voter registration and reregister as independents. I don't care anymore what party someone is in. These days, what I care about is what they're made of.

Wartime demands leaders with character and moral authority. The political party smearing Mr. Webb proves it has neither.

KevinTheOmnivore · #2

Um, you know the Webb campaign is trying to get Allen to disclose more of his personal records on his ex-wife, so that they can attack him for spitting on her, right?

That campaign has gotten very nasty (I live in the market). It isn't a one-sided smear by any stretch....

Preechr · #3

Hey, in the last week of an election campaign, anything goes, right, Kevin?

KevinTheOmnivore · #4

I certainly don't recall saying that, you'll have to show me where.

Although I do enjoy it. it can only serve at this point to turn off voters from dumb stiffs such as these. Going negative in media a week out is dumb. Going negative with targeted mail or phone calls can work, but this shit will only frustrate people more.

Preechr · #5

I didn't say you said that. I recognize you are well trained in election politics, and I've heard that mentality expressed ad nauseum the last few days, so I figured you'd been taught that in your studies. Is that not commonly accepted wisdom?

KevinTheOmnivore · #6

Common wisdom is that negative ads work better because people respond to them, and remember them. You don't remember the fluffy ads, you remember the nasty ones.

Politics is generally about raising your opponents negatives, and I personally think negative TV spots can be effective earlier in the campaign. "Negative" is often relative in all this....would it have been negative for Mark Foley's opponent to run ads on his habits, or would it be a public service?

Are these things that voters should know now, or once they've already elected a pedophile?

sadie · #7

for the last three days, i've gotten poster-sized campaign ads from both the republicans, who advise me to skip voting rather than vote for webb, and the nea, who inform me that allen is anti-teachers. they cancel each other out...from the trash can.

mburbank · #8

The stuff I've read on the wife spitting provocation so far has all stated that they can't find any connection to the Webb campaign. Have you read something else? If so, I'd be interested. Allen publicly stated it was a Webb campaign operation, but as of last night he hadn't offered any evidence. On the other hand, the beating his folks metted out in return can't really be called independent, since it was people on his staff who did the beating. It was a deliberate attempt to spark bad behavior. Absolutely undignified and reprehensible, but not followed by "I approve this messae" or "Paid for by the DNC".

Also, my point in posting the article isn't who does what. It's that when someone with Schaeffers profile is do upset with the tone of advertising that he abandons his party, I think it's a bellwether. Unless it turns out that there's no such person as schaefer, or that he hasn't always been a Republican, or that he isn't an evangelical, etc. etc, which is of course possible.

In Massachusetts, Kerry Healey's negative campaign for governor has steadily driven her poll numbers down. I know we're a liberal sate and all, but we do seem to like Republican governors, and negative campaigning has in the past worked really well here.

All I'm suggesting is that it may have found it's bottom, the edge of the envelope.

KevinTheOmnivore · #9

I know some of Webb's staffers, and I know they're pushing Allen's people to disclose more of his personal records.

People didn't even KNOW he had an ex-wife until pretty recently.

mburbank · #10

Okay. That's interesting and repugnant and not surprising.

I still think there's a negative campaigning backlash starting. And I think in the race to the bottom that initiated this backlash, I think Republicans had a good, solid lead, which is not to say Democrats weren't in the race.

I'm pretty sure there have been no Democratic attack ads spuriously linking Republican candidates to NAMBLA, for instance.