George Allen, Jim Webb, fact, and fiction

Just a couple of months ago, George Allen was considered a solid contender for the 2008 presidential election and all set to coast to victory as Virginia's next senator. Then there were complications, as Allen's creepy history on racial issues-- already public record but now all over the news-- exploded on the airwaves. Allen seemed to dig himself in deeper every time he opened his mouth, and the word is that his campaign's new tactic is to keep him very, very far away from reporters.

Tactic two has been to accuse his opponent, Jim Webb, of writing smutty books. Yes, that's hypocrisy you're smelling. Most of you are probably familiar with Lynne Cheney's lesbian romance Sisters, and Scooter Libby's novel that features a caged bear trained(!) to do the nasty with pre-adolescent girls.

But someone out there seems to have come up with a new headache for Allen:

I just got off the phone with the clerk at the Albemarle Circuit Court. She has told me that a photo now floating around the internet -- one which shows a court entry for one "George Felix Allen" in 1974 -- represents real court records. (. . .)

What is the record for? The clerk, Shelby Marshall, told me that the record is not necessarily of an arrest warrant, though it could have been. She said the record could be reflecting anything from a summons for an unpaid parking ticket all the way up to an arrest warrant for a misdemeanor for something like assault and battery, and that she doesn't have any more information.