Cross-Posted to
VirginiaBelle.Net
I was going to entitle this entry, "Why Harris Miller is glad that Mo Eleithee is his Communications Director", because he has hit first, and he is precisely on target. Gives me fond memories of the Kaine campaign and their top tier communications set-up. Anyway, Lowell has a post up on Raising Kaine responding for the Webb folk, and while he does a decent job, and I appreciate his tone, I do feel it is a bit of apologia. I appreciate that Webb has appointed women to leadership positions within the Navy. I do. I don't think he's an ovary-hater. However, "Why Women Can't Fight" still smacks of all the innuendo and consequences it did before, and the taste it leaves in my mouth is not going to leave anytime soon. You are asking me to look beyond it, and I'm not saying I can't, or that I don't appreciate how much of a hero he is held in military and conservative circles for writing it (and the subsequent electoral advantage of that), but don't tell me it doesn't smell. Because it reeks.
And that's why Miller's operation put Kennedy out there, and it is entirely within their right as a campaign to do so. I do not buy the argument that this is somehow cheap or below the belt of the Miller campaign. How on earth is it cheap to highlight really valid points of argument as to why Webb has problems with his progressive credentials and use someone who illustrates the point well? Why is it out of bounds to oppose someone who is running on military with someone with military background who disagrees. Kennedy is an incredibly valid voice in this debate, and a real find for the Miller campaign.
For those of you whom this has all flown over your head, this is the debate in question:
Retired Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, endorsing Webb's opponent, Harris Miller, said Webb has a "troubling record" of opposing women in the military.
"He is not in touch with today's military," said Kennedy, who was the highest-ranking woman in the Army when she retired as deputy chief of staff for intelligence in 2000. She noted that 18 percent of armed services personnel are women.
Webb, a secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration and a decorated Marine officer in Vietnam, wrote a 1979 article titled "Women Can't Fight."
He also said that the 1991 Operation Tailhook scandal in which Navy men were accused of sexually harassing Navy women at a convention was overblown. While the men should have been punished, the culture of the Navy should have been defended by its leaders, he said in a 1996 speech at the Naval Academy, his alma mater.
This is fairly effectively the first real hit in the primary campaign. Prior to this, both Miller and Webb had been pretty effectively focusing on Allen. The question is how Webb will respond, and to me, that answer will say a lot about his campaign and his future as a candidate.
However, take heart, Webb campaign, because I do think that, should you get beyond the primary, the Miller folk have done you a service by putting this out there, because its main damage will be with primary folk. Those folk will still vote with you against Allen, and in many ways this does you a favor with the conservative crossovers you need to win. It's difficult for Allen to call Webb a liberal with stuff like this floating around. Hell, even Webb thought it was pretty outlandish to be called a liberal on the Colbert Report last night. Because we all know he's not really a liberal. And that's golden in the general, if problematic in the primary. So before you start saying he's been swift-boated, consider that even in a well-timed attack with serious implications for the primary, Miller has not hurt your general election chances, which gets them my kudos for the day.