Political or Not, a Voice From the Grave Gets Legs
2006-09-14
Source: Washinton Post
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rss feedVirginia's topsy-turvy Senate campaign got even more upside down last week.
One of the major candidates offered Virginia voters a ringing tribute from the grave -- archival footage of former president Ronald Reagan praising the candidate in a television commercial. In a conservative state such as Virginia, those words are worth a million dollars.
The opponent reacted immediately, condemning the ad and quickly lining up former first lady Nancy Reagan to ask that the campaign commercial be pulled even before it began running.
But it wasn't Sen. George Allen (R) running the ad. And it wasn't Democrat James Webb orchestrating the request to pull it.
It was the other way around.
Webb, an assistant secretary of defense and Navy secretary under Reagan, is hoping the 1985 speech by the former president will help him earn the votes of swing voters and moderates who would usually vote for Allen.
"James' gallantry as a Marine officer in Vietnam won him the Navy Cross and other decorations," Reagan says in the ad, which began airing Monday despite Nancy Reagan's objections.
Allen countered quickly with a statement from several of the former president's top aides, including former chief of staff Kenneth M. Duberstein , attorney general Edwin Meese III and former campaign chairman and U.S. senator Paul D. Laxalt (R-Nev.).
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