. . . Allen is dabbling in literary criticism. He has read, or someone has read for him, at least some of Webb's six fine novels, finding therein sexual passages that have caused Allen -- he of the football metaphors, cowboy regalia and Copenhagen smokeless tobacco -- to blush like a fictional Victorian maiden and fulminate like an actual Victorian man, Anthony Comstock, the 19th-century scourge of sin who successfully agitated for New York and federal anti-obscenity statutes and is credited with the destruction of 160 tons of naughty printed matter and pictures.
Webb, a highly decorated Marine veteran of Vietnam combat, includes sexual scenes in his fictional depictions of young men far from home and close to combat, something about which he knows a lot and Allen does not. Allen says the scenes are demeaning to women and are evidence of flaws in Webb's character.
Will goes on to deride this "ham-handed grab for women's votes", concluding that even if Allen wins next week, he is "much diminished and perhaps out of contention" as a presidential candidate, his prospects "radically reduced" by his incompetent senatorial campaign.
If Will is right, Jim Webb has already done yet one more patriotic service for his country this campaign season.
Let's make sure next Tuesday that he gets to do a lot more.