“Best-selling author John Grisham, who with Stephen King held a fundraiser for Webb in Charlottesville, said Friday in an interview: “This is a clear sign of a desperate campaign if they plow through novels trying to find evidence of character. I seriously doubt George Allen is much of a reader, but if he would read more, maybe he would understand the difference between fiction and nonfiction.”

“Margaret R. Soltan, an English professor at George Washington University, said voters should not regard Webb’s novels as indicative of his views, any more than voters in England should have been deterred by some of Winston Churchill’s more shocking writing.

“To think along those lines exposes you as a person who has no culture,” she said.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a Vietnam war hero who has endorsed Allen, praises “Lost Soldiers” on the book jacket. “It captures well the lingering scars of the war,” he says. “A novel of revenge and redemption that tells us much about both where Vietnam is headed and where it has been.”

No culture indeed. Grow up.

Just who is Jim Webb? He made strident statements against opening military academies to women, and equally harsh criticisms against the Pentagon’s response to the Tailhook scandal (basically they wimped out on defending the military’s “unique” culture).

He seemed to be the only one standing up for the few that were prosecuted after Tailhook, certainly the brass was nowhere to be found.

How does he find a home in the Democrat Party? He seems to be more right-wing than George Allen. Was it just opportunism because he had burned his bridges with the Republicans (under Reagan)?

Have to admit, I’m torn.