Allen Campaign and Right Wing Media Disinformation on Webb: Debunked

[Catchawave]

Source: Raising Kaine

http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3659


by: Lowell

Tue Jul 25, 2006 at 13:55:56 PM MDT
Over the past few days, the Allen campaign has been busy spreading disinformation that cuts to the core of Jim Webb's service in the Reagan Administration, and to Webb's character more generally. Specifically, the Allen camp has started pushing the bizarre line that "Webb is Not and Never Was a Reagan Democrat." Even worse, Allen's allies have been attempting to argue that Jim Webb resigned as Navy Secretary NOT on principle but in a fit of "pique."
Webb wasn't a "Reagan Democrat?" How can the Allen camp and its conservative allies make such a claim, when Webb served in the Reagan Administration for 4 years, from 1984 to 1988? Aside from the fact that Webb resigned as Navy Secretary, the right-wingers point to policy disagreements between Webb and certain other Reagan Administration officials. I know, we're all shocked, SHOCKED that there would be policy disagreements within a presidential Administration. Well, news flash to George Allen, the Reagan Administration was not monolithic, with people agreeing 97% of the time as you do with your soulmate, George W. Bush. What a concept.

Meanwhile, the right-wing smear machine is pushing the swift-boat-style attack line that Webb resigned as Navy Secretary out of "pique" rather than "principle." Ironically, the Allen campaign and its surrogates in the right-wing media are relying heavily for this charge on an 18-year-old editorial in the New York Times, of all places. Rather ironic, considering that the right wing is usually busy claiming that the New York Times is ultra liberal, "disgraceful," and even treasonous.