First, it was George H. W. Bush's Justice Department which originally sued VMI over its admissions policy. At the time, Dick Thornburgh was the attorney general.

I was still a cadet at the time.  Governor Douglas Wilder was in office.  VMI made the decision to fight the Justice Department.  Governor Doug Wilder backed that decision.  Morever, it was then Attorney General Mary Sue Terry who helped craft the legal defense employed throughout the various levels of the litigation.

VMI won at both the District Court level and at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.  After granting cert., the United States Supreme Court overturned the Fourth Circuit's decision in 1996.  VMI was thus faced with the decision to admit women or go private.

Governor Allen had little to do with either the litigation or the ultimate decision of the VMI Board of Visitors to go co-ed.  In fact, he had little influence over the process.

At the time, had VMI chosen to go private, there was some discussion that the Clinton Administration would withhold ROTC funding.

Given this pressure, some on the Board of Visitors voted to go co-ed.  It was a close vote.

Since that time, however, VMI hasn't looked back.  It has transitioned quite well.  I have met several of the first female graduates and find them to be welcome additions to the alumni body.

"That's the rest of the story...."

“Many women appear to be having problems with their sexuality…What kind of woman would seek out the Academy routine?� (pg. 282, “Women Can’t Fight,� Washingtonian Magazine, November 1979)

“What the whole world may not know is that women did not attain these positions in the same way that men historically have…Women will not be leading men inside the brigade this year. They will be managing them, buttressed by the officers who hurried them along. And the morale of the brigade will demonstrate this distinction far better than this article ever could.� (pg. 277, “Women Can’t Fight,� Washingtonian Magazine, November 1979)

Webb referred to female midshipman at Annapolis as “thunder thighs.� (Baltimore Sun, 8/28/92)

“Tailhook should have been a three or maybe five-day story.� (Speech to the Naval Institute Annual Conference, Washington Times, 4/25/96)

It's called changing your mind.

Um, mistake? Yes I think so. Is this your big "gotcha" you cronies?

Yeah a 30 year old article. WOW!!!

Um, I think your a little desparate.

Yup. Wait.. meanwhile in IRAQ.

U.S. Servicemen and women are dying. DYING.

DYING. TODAY.

And the republican rebuttal will be?

That's all you got a "group" who called themselves webbites. A group?

HOW ABOUT JIM WEBB's SON IN THE WORST PART OF IRAQ????

HOW ABOUT ALL OF THE BODIES HAVING TO RETURN IN COFFINS??

HOW ABOUT THE VOTE ALLEN CASTED AGAINST TROOP BODY ARMOR?

We have real problems in 2006.

But all you can talk about it an article in 1979, and a "group" who supported his article in 1992.

How about, Allen's going to lose on November 7th?

Allen, goodbye Mr. Senator.. and good riddens.

Pathetic.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Contact: Jeff Pyatt: 703-778-4080
Jessica Smith, c: 202-236-3002

Statement by Jim Webb

"I am completely comfortable with the roles of women in today's military, and I fully support the advancements that have taken place.  Over the past few years I have been privileged to visit numerous military units, and to accept the invitations of female officers for command visits in Japan, Hawaii, Washington, DC and Quantico.  I look forward to continuing to do so.

"27 years ago I wrote a magazine article about the issue of women in combat and women at the Naval Academy.  I did not title the article.  In the article I made clear that I would support a woman candidate for President and would have voted for Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir.  The article was written during a time of great emotional debate over a wide array of social issues in this country, and the tone of this article was no exception.  Many leading military figures, including the Commandant of the Marine Corps, shared my concerns in these areas. 

"I did not anticipate the widespread reaction to this magazine article, and to the extent that my writing subjected women at the Academy or the active Armed Forces to undue hardship, I remain profoundly sorry.  On the first occasion that I was invited back to the Academy in 1983, among my comments was a strong call for harmony among male and female midshipmen.

"This issue was addressed during two Senate confirmation hearings, in 1984 and 1987, to the satisfaction of the Senate, which on both occasions unanimously supported my appointments in the Defense Department.  Further, when I was Secretary of the Navy, I strengthened policies against sexual harassment.  I also personally convened a Navy-wide task force of senior male and female officers and NCOs to examine roles of women in the Navy, and as a result tripled the number of operational assignments available to women."

# # #

Paid for by James Webb for U.S. Senate

Both candidates have an affinity for southern history. Allen admits it, Webb tries to hide it now that it's becoming public knowledge.

Just as he did at the Shad planking when he was seen wearing a confederate lapel decoration...

"Jim Webb was not aware he was wearing the lapel sticker. When he became aware he was wearing it, he removed the sticker."

Not aware of a lapel sticker? Come on, surely he's mor in tune with his surroundings than that.

Tailhook should have been a three- or maybe a five-day story. Those who were to blame for outrageous conduct should have been disciplined, and those who were not to blame should have been vigorously defended, along with the culture and the mores of the naval service. Instead, we are now at four years and counting, and its casualty list reads like a Who's Who of naval aviation.

Your fragmentary excerpt is misleading to the point of lying.

http://hrw.org/campa...

George Allen is no friend of women. 

Listen, Armistead, get over it.  That war was over a long time ago.  (Although your man Allen seems to love the moral and political aims of the losing side.)

Focus on this:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The leader of Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab group demanded Wednesday that the beleaguered Shiite-led government take steps to disarm militias after police said the bodies of 65 tortured men were dumped in and around Baghdad.

On a violent day even by the standards of Baghdad, car bombs, mortars and other attacks also killed at least 39 people and wounded dozens. Two U.S. soldiers also were killed, one in enemy action in restive Anbar province on Monday and the other in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad on Tuesday, the U.S. military command said.

The attacks have been unrelenting despite a security crackdown around the capital by 12,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops. The more than 1,500 violent deaths last month at the height of the joint operation speak to the difficulties in restoring any semblance of security to this sprawling city of 6 million people."

A guy by the name of Jim Webb said Iraq would be a quagmire.  We need a guy with his talents to get us out without endangering the whole world.

No, you'll support someone like Allen who wanted to promote a religious fanatic within the military because his religious base told him it was a good idea.

I know who he his but he secret remains safe with me. If you'll read carefully, you'll notice that his writing style and mine aren't the same.

He knows his stuff, though.

War over slavery? You obviously have not read Jim Webb's book, the war was not about slavery. It was something about the oppressed poor fighting to keep the idle rich at bay.

By the way, I concur with Roger, I'm not him. If you guys have someone there who can find his way around a whois query you would know that.

The vets ad went a lot further than the press conference.

Why do Republicans call the Democratic party the whiny party?  All I have heard since Webb won the primary was crybaby talk from Allen and his camp.