RK ARCHIVE - Where exactly is the mud from the Webb side?

Meanwhile, every mean-spritied personal attack against Jim Webb has emanated either from the Allen camp, the RNSC, the RNC, or 527s that are Republican-dominated, or they've come from Allen-affiliated entities. The Washington Post and other media admit that the Allen campaign badgered them for weeks to print something about Webb's novels and they gamely refused, but because Allen's people were able to turn to the right-wing garbage spewer Matt Drudge to print something about it, suddenly this became front-page news for Post (and shame on the Post for allowing itself to be manipulated by Drudge when they truly knew better).

This obviously backfired for Allen and may indeed cost him his seat, but there is no question whatsoever where these attacks came from. The same goes for the attacks on the 1979 article and Webb's "Tailhook" response, all of which was taken out of context in the standard cynical manner of the GOP playbook.

Now, the Allen campaign has been leveled by four main scandals, and each was born from sources completely and totally unrelated to the Webb campaign, the DSCC, DNC, or any Democratic Party group or organization. The M-word instance (it really is an insulting term and I won't use it)? Out of Allen's own mouth with no prompting. His Jewish heritage? Handled so poorly by Allen himself (casting "apersions"???) that one has to wonder if he really understood that he was in a public forum. The N-word allegations? Ex-teammates who came forward because they needed to speak the truth, and then backed up by Larry Sabato, no one's idea of a Democratic water-carrier for sure. Confederate flags, nooses, and beatings of his sister? All either documented by the media or through primary accounts.

In short, the dirty tricks and nastiness that have been a part of this campaign are the fault of George Allen, his affiliates, and his sympathizers or from private citizens motivated by their own internal compass. Jim Webb and the Democratic Party have done nothing but highlight George Allen's record as a public official and candidate. Any portrayal otherwise or any generalization about the two candidates in the context of the negativity of this race is misleading and wrong.

Comments

This post isn't mud; it strings together facts from the mainstream media (GeorgeAllenVa - 11/4/2006 1:34:25 AM)

WERE STOCK OPTIONS A BRIBE TO ALLEN? (-)
by: GeorgeAllenVa
Fri Nov 03, 2006 at 12:29:53 PM EST
A new article in the American Prospect (www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=12180) should be required reading for anyone who still thinks George Allen is even remotely an honest and ethical man.
The article raises even more troubling questions than last month’s Associated Press story (apnews.myway.com/article/20061009/D8KL0ENG0.html), which revealed Allen wrote a letter urging Pentagon officials to act quickly on a contract request from a now-bankrupt firm called Xybernaut. (The AP article also showed that Allen had for five years failed to tell Congress about options he received from another company.)
Allen sat on the board of Xybernaut during his two years in private life—between the governor’s mansion and the Senate cloakroom. He received options on 110,000 shares of Xybernaut, and Xybernaut paid his law firm hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Now, the Prospect reports that Xybernaut awarded Allen the last 50,000 options just 18 days before he was elected to the Senate in 2000. The issuance is confirmed on a “Form Five” filing (www.prospect.org/UserOverride/form5.pdfAllen) made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Two other directors, who were also awarded 50,000 options at the same meeting, swore on legally binding federal forms that they actually received their options in January 2001—after Allen was already senator-elect, the article reveals. And strangely, Allen’s Form Five is stamped February 27, 2001—well after he had taken office. Yet Allen claims on his form that he received the options on October 20, 2000—the day of the meeting.
Why did Xybernaut grant Allen the options, appoint him to its board and pay his law firm so handsomely? Here’s what company chief financial officer said in a Yahoo Investor Forum post cited by the Prospect: "George Allen, the former governor of Virginia and candidate for the Senate in 2000, is on Xybernaut's board of directors and is very helpful in dealings with government." After Allen took office and had to resign from the board under Senate conflict-of-interest rules, the CFO added in later post: "While his contributions to the board will certainly be missed, I believe that our shareholders are better off with a staunch supporter of Xybernaut in the U.S. Senate."
What did Allen do for the options, which turned out to be virtually worthless, but which were worth more than $1 million at one point (www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aMTFur4YOYEs&refer=news)? The facts are pretty damning.
In December 2001, Sen. Allen wrote a letter to the Army urging it to expedite a decision on a Xybernaut contract request. "Your immediate attention and expeditious assistance with the requests and concerns expressed in this case would be greatly appreciated," he wrote Army officials, according to The Washington Post.
Xybernaut rewrote its rules in a manner that allowed it to give Allen the options before Election Day, then rewrote them again to stop giving out similar options awards to other directors. What’s more, the Prospect quotes a Harvard business professor as questioning why options would have been awarded to Allen, who was ahead in the polls and would be leaving the board after he won election. Stock options are designed to align the interests of directors with a company—not to reward departing directors, the professor says.
Indeed, this company, which made wearable computers, was involved in plenty of questionable dealings. These are outlined brilliantly, also in the Prospect (www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=11861). Three months before Xybernaut filed for bankruptcy reorganization, an internal audit committee said the firm’s chief executive officer and chief operating officer “improperly used substantial company funds for personal expenses,” engaged in major unreported transactions and hired family members whose roles with the company were not properly disclosed, in violation of its bylaws, the Prospect says.
The article says the SEC and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia have reportedly launched probes. Xybernaut is also the target of class-action lawsuits by shareholders.
Discuss :: (0 Comments )

"Fair and balanced" (libra - 11/4/2006 10:40:59 PM)

I think it's both -- MSM's version of "fair and balance" as dictated by their owners. Which is why they say something like "both sides are ugly", but don't quote too many instances (if any). The same "both sides do it" operates when the MSM "report" on corruption in Congress. They can't be too specific because, while it's true that, for example, there are ongoing and/or completed investigations against elected officials in both parties, the ratio is 15 GOP and 3 Dem, which doesn't look very "balanced" to me :)

"[...] Felix has tried to link the origins of the "macaca" story and the Mike Stark attack to the Webb campaign."

Sidarth was from Webb campaign, Stark wasn't. But, even if both had been from Webb campaign, nobody *forced* Allen or his campaign staffers to attack them; you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

If such behavior hadn't been totally *within Allen's character*, neither of the attacks would have happened.

The first time I met Webb was at a tiny "rally-ette"/meeting in BV, a week or so after the Labor Day; he came to meet with people here because he missed the LD parade, getting Jimmy off to Iraq.

During the questions period, a "plant"(agent provocateur) came in and asked an -- obviouly confrontational -- question about "amnesty". Jim pretended not to know what the guy was talking about, so he had to explain himself. Whereupon Jim explained his position on *immigration*. Needless to say, the guy wasn't interested. Nor was he interested in letting other people ask their questions; he kept yelling "but what about amnesty?", even though several people asked him to quit, now that he had his answer. Finally, he offered to "duke it out" with one of the people present -- *not* someone from Webb's entourage -- and both left the place. Since the escort returned within seconds and the "plant" walked off on his own steam, I think only forceful *words* were exchanged.

Perhaps Allen's tracker has the incident on tape :) Though I doubt it is something Allen's camp would be likely to advertise; their "plant" was an obvious lout as well as an idiot, and Webb's campaign staff and supporters behaved in most exemplary fashion; no fodder for the mud-slinging machine here.

As for the tracker himself... This was shortly after the "macaca incident", and everyone was still talking about it, so when Webb pointed him out saying -- "this is the guy who's been working very hard for some weeks now, trying to catch me being nasty" -- we all laughed. But it was obvious that the young man was accepted as almost a part of the entourage. And, after the meeting was over and we were all leaving, he stopped Jim and asked him to pose for a photo. Jim obliged, and the two parted, each going for his own mode of transportation .

My point -- to which I've been meandering so long-windedly is this:

We have two candidates running a campaign for US Senate. We have two tracker incidents, and two confrontational incidents. But the incidents aren't identical; they're *mirrored* -- what's right in one set is left (wrong) in the other. Allen is a thug, so his staff/followers are likely to be that way too -- "the fish starts stinking from the head", and they're likely to get their cues from him (somehow, I had a feeling that the tracker didn't quite fit the "scene". Wonder how long he stayed with Allen's campaign. Wonder who he'll be voting for ).

Jim, OTOH, is a gentleman (besides being an officer ) and will accord respect to all human beings, until forced to do otherwise (and, judging by the loon at the meeting, it takes *a lot* to snap Jim's patience). Which is why MSM is (are?) reduced to mouthing empty, un-fair and un-balanced, platitudes without being able to offer a shred of evidence.