Another friend, a conservative-actitvist lifer type who lives in Virginia e-mails:

Race is over. Finished. Done. Webb is toast. Yes, it’s only fiction, but that bit about the father and his naked son is so despicable that the sensible people in red Virginia will certainly “go home” and support Governor Allen. I think Webb even loses some of the independents in Northern Virginia with these revelations. Maybe you guys in Manhattan are desensitized to this filth, but the people of Roanoke, Lynchburg, Blacksburg, Fredericksburg, etc., aren’t. And no way will these voters EVER accept the argument that it’s only fiction.