Via Hot Air comes a whisper of the back-alley brawls that are even now starting to formover the 2016 election, out there where nothing is really too low a blow and everything can be denied later:
While they aren’t acknowledging [Jim] Webb publicly, [Hillary] Clinton loyalists are keeping an eye on him privately. The week before Thanksgiving, staffers of Philippe Reines, Clinton’s longtime communications guru, pitched talk radio producers on the racy, sexually charged writings in Webb’s novels, according to a source. Webb was forced to fend off a similar attack in 2006, when Allen accused him of “demeaning women.”
Webb also has previously apologized for writing that a Naval Academy dorm was a “horny woman’s dream” in a 1979 Washingtonian magazine piece titled “Jim Webb: Women Can’t Fight.” The piece’s central argument was against allowing women to take combat positions in the military. If Webb were to ever attain traction, Clinton’s allies would certainly lob the rhetoric back at him.
This stuff was, in fact, tested out on Jim Webb back in 2006; it didn’t work for us, sure, but then we didn’t have a sympathetic media on our side. But, hey, if Hillary needs more help on this one: don’t forget that article that Webb wrote back in 2010 complaining about diversity programs! …Which was almost certainly a major reason why Webb chose not to run for re-election in 2012, of course; and of course I’m going to throw this particular fellow an anvil. After all, Jim Webb might not actually be drowning yet. Better safe, and all that.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Over the last few months, the Democratic Party has gone from flirting (and heavy petting) with tribalism to openly embracing it.
Jim Webb is in the unique position of being a great standard bearer for some of the largest tribes comprising the Democratic Party. Blue collar Caucasians are a much-abused minority in the Democratic Party, but they’re still a plurality of the Democratic Party. And through the labor unions, they’re pretty unrivaled at infrastructure.
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I predicted some time ago that Webb would be nominee for 2016. IMV, current events are only making that more likely. (If Warren challenges Hillary, I’d say it just about becomes a lead pipe cinch.)