Jim Webb says he won't be a candidate for vice president

It's strange that phrog and the republicans had no complaint with phrog's "blatant pedophilia" until the author crossed the political boundary from republican to democrat.

phrog shows the republican culture in a not so good light.

It's been read over and over, like a broken record, and no matter how you slice it's still bull. I question your obsession.

are you trying to assert that if we find an activity repulsing, one is unable to write about it?

I realize this thread has veered far afield, but it is still about Jim Webb so it's still good to go, I guess . . .
I am astonished the word "ethnocentrism" would be applied to our revulsion at child sex practices in other countries. "Ethnocentrism" has a bad connotation, like unreasonable prejudice against the ways of another culture just because they are not our ways.
Are there truly no absolutes? If a culture declares that sex with a child is okay, is it okay for them? How about clitoral mutilation in young girls to stop them having pleasure in sex when they reach adulthood? How about forced abortion? How about slave labor in sweatshop factories (children or adults)? Are we really to the point that we regard all cultures as equally virtuous, even when they practice those things that we find so repugnant in our own culture? If they cross an international boundary to do it, it's okay? Just a thoug

By Phrog suggesting that because Webb authored something that Webb observed in another culture also makes Webb culpable is disingenuous at best. And Phrog's attempt to frame his argument in a literary, rather than the obvious political, context is even more so. There has been uncountable literature published over the years about other cultures practices that western culture may deem repugnant. Think ethnocentrism. While Phrog may find discomfort in particular parts of Webb's literature, I find his fixation on this particular part even more troubling.

I'm glad he isn't running. We need people in the Senate who actually get things done (or at least try to). Taking Webb out of the Senate and putting him in a useless figurehead position would be harmful to the legislative branch.

What's missing on this blog is "ignore comment". The same old ranting over and over get a bit boring and aren't anything but Republican propaganda and total bull.

phrog is so eager to denigrate now democrat Webb for morals and so reluctant to discuss the morals of republicans on phrog's "blatant pedophilia".

Show us all where you condemned this "blatant pedophilia" before 2006, phrog. After all, you knew exactly what page it was on. Or was it not so repugnant to you when Webb was a republican?

I guess I have to repeat and emphasize. ANYONE!

Here it is again, in case you missed it the first time -
ANYONE!

Wow, I didn't think it was that complicated. I really wish I could draw a picture on this post, and then maybe you might understand.

You failed to add Lynne Cheney to you list.

We see that phrog shows that republicans have no complaint against what he calls "blatant pedophilia" when written by republicans. Only when the writer changes parties do the republicans get indignant as he does.

Georges and all the rest of you one track hypocrites. Perhaps you all would do yourself better justice if you all actually read what I wrote in terms of literacy instead of political shallowness. Here, I’ll post it again for your benefit. Read multiple times if you need to.
“That graphic detail of pedophilia made by ANYONE (republican, democrat, evangelical, athiest, I don't care who) is absolutely dispicable.”
Did you get the part where I said ANYONE? I have read some of Stephen Kiing’s books and of the ones I have read I never saw graphic detail of pedophilia. I don’t care for him as an author, but if he did cross that line I would put him in the same category as Mr. Webb.
I suppose you all think that what Senator Craig did last year was okay. Perhaps even what Senator Lott said at Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday was perfectly fine with you as well.

Apparently, the neocons will never accept the fact that their football tossin, good ole boy "Jethro" Allen lost to Webb. It's time to move on people. Most Patriot fans have gotten over the Super Bowl by now. However, if you folks need an occasional dose of your hero George Allen, he periodically appears as a guest analyst on Hannity and Colmes, you know, on the Rove-O'Reilly network. While most politicians would jump at the chance to be selected as a VP running mate in the middle of their Senate term, this choice by Senator Webb shows dedication, commitment and character.

Give phrog a chance to show that republicans' moral character is or is not "somewhere between gutter trash and sewage slime".

Phrog has already shown that McCain had no problems with what Phrog calls "blatant pedophilia".

I can't believe that I am quoting Michelle Malkin, but here you go "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." And she goes on to assert: "But if this what Republican Senate candidates need to do to win elections, I don’t think any of us should be cheering." I agree with her completely. Grow up people.

Webb was a republican back then. Please show all articles you can find from before 2006 by republicans that they disapproved of the passage(s) that you call "blatant pedophilia".

Or is "blatant pedophilia" ok with republicans when written by a republican?

am81430 wrote:

Physician, heal thyself. The reason why it was put in the book was it was something Webb WITNESSED.

Sort of like the many things John Kerry witnessed?

Physician, heal thyself. The reason why it was put in the book was it was something Webb WITNESSED. Way to shrug off the McCain review by the way...but your explanation does not hold water...

So Steven King is a child eating clown? Or is he a an alien...child brought from the dead in a magical indian cemetary? C'mon man.

How can you sit there with a straight face and consider this propaganda? The words were written by Jim Webb himself. This was NOT a Karl Rove tactic, this was NOT a vast right-wing consiracy, This was from the mind of Jim Webb himself. John McCain's review was directed at the story as a whole. But these passages were put in the book by Mr. Webb. The question begs to ask why in his mind did Mr. Webb consider this particular passage so intrinsically part of the story that it had to placed in the novel in such graphic detail.
Get away from the kool-aid. Take the brain sucking machine off your head. Get off the partisan bandwagon. That graphic detail of pedophilia made by ANYONE (republican, democrat, evangelical, athiest, I don't care who) is absolutely dispicable.

The passage in question was a factual account of something Webb himself witnessed while in SE Asia as a journalist, in broad daylight in the middle of the street. While the practice may seem abhorrent to us, it is a cultural norm in that part of the world, like tickling a baby. Webb himself has said that he was also shocked to see it. You may not like it, but that's the truth.

It is hardly "gay porn," and to consider it as such only shows your total ignorance. Do you also think that Stephen King and Agatha Christie are murderers, because they wrote about murder? What about Shakespeare, or the Bible? Tons of murder, incest, and sodomy in those tomes.

Webb threw himself on a live grenade to save a fellow Marine. To say that his "moral character is somewhere between gutter trash and sewage slime" is a disgraceful smear on a true American hero. Shame on you. Don't agree with his politics? Fine. But don't que

Sen. John McCain's review of Lost Soldiers: "James Webb's new novel paints a portrait of a modern Vietnam charged with hopes for the future but haunted by the ghosts of its war-torn past. It captures well the lingering scars of the war, and exposes the tension between the dynamism of a new generation and the invisible bondage of an older generation for whom wartime allegiances, and animosities, are rendered no less vivid by the passage of time. A novel of revenge and redemption that tells us much about both where Vietnam is headed and where it has been." Phrog, this tactic to smear Webb by attacking his writing was tried and failed in the past. Give it up.

The same kind of propaganda was being spread about Lynne's Cheney's book regarding lesbians. Or did you forget? It's all a bunch of hogwash!

You have to be an arrogant egotistical person to withdraw from something you have not been offered.

Read the passages yourself. I won’t write on here the explicit material.

- Lost Soldiers
Bantam Books, NY, 1st Edition, 2001, (hard cover), page 333. para. 10,.Chap. 34.
- A Country Such as This
Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY, 1983 (hardcover); page 396

There are others. But the account that he wrote in Lost Soldiers is way over the line and blatant pedophilia. Aside from his political attributes and accolades, his moral character is somewhere between gutter trash and sewage slime.

Another article indicates Virginia Beach may be looking for some dog catchers soon. Webb needs to keep his resume tuned up....

I AM a self-respecting voter, and I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Sen. Webb. It is no small thing to have achieved the level of notoriety that he has in such a short time in the Senate. And it makes me very proud that he is fighting so hard for the men and women in the armed forces. My husband is active duty Navy, currently deployed in the Persian Gulf. Knowing that we have Webb in our corner means a lot to us.

It's unfortunate that so many of you cannot give up on the illusion of "What Could Have Been"? if George Allen was still on the scene. Or perhaps you cannot handle the fact that Webb chose to run as a Democrat.

What are you talking about?

you ask what Webb has done for VA, here it is: supported passage of the 2008 Farm Bill, which contains a record level amount of funding to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, got the GI bill passed (there are Virgninians in the military), worked with John Warner to get good judges appointed in VA, is working to help the blue crab population, attempting to get federal employees more parental leave, etc., etc. And that is just this year. And the assertion that he is unexperienced? The man served as sec. of the Navy! What, do you want your senator to be able to walk on water? As for disrespectful? Why? Because he would not let the president bully him in a conversation? People, give it a rest.

Yes, absolutely, we need guys with a lot more experience than these two. We need experienced people like Cheney and Rumsfeld and Rove and Condi.

Why, without more experience, you never know what might happen. People like Webb and Obama could get us into a senseless, protracted war. Or they could forget to go look for Osama. Or they could screw up the economy. Why, the markets could crash and the dollar could tumble and gasoline prices could go up by 50 percent!

It's frightening to think what could happen with a whole gaggle of people in the West Wing who lack decades of D.C. "experience."