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When George Allen and his campaign took some small excerpts from my novels, and not only criticized them, but used them to question my ethics, my professional writing career, and my character, that's a line that should never be crossed. You can disagree with my politics, but don't question my faith, and don't question my character....
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I'm sorry I had to go through all of that, but I'm proud of what I've written. I've lived in the real world, and I've reported the real world in my writings. I started working when I was 12 years old. I fought in a brutal war. I saw its ugliness while George Allen was hanging out at a dude ranch. I got shot at again, covering the Marines in Beirut in 1983 as a journalist. I went on operations in Afghanistan, not as a pampered government official coming in for his dog and pony show briefings, walking on patrols, combat patrols, and sleeping on the ground. I was reporting from the slums of Bangkok when George Allen was schlepping around in his limo....
The most important point I'm making here is that I have written about what I have seen. And that is the duty of a writer, to help people understand the world around us, with all of its beauty, and all of its flaws. Now maybe George Allen doesn't understand that, since I'm told he doesn't read books. Sombody told me yesterday that I've written more books than George Allen has read, then somebody said well, maybe that was the other George...
The Allen campaign has made smear tactics the centerpiece of their entire effort. Why have they done that? Because George Allen has nothing to report. He has no accomplishments. He has been wrong on foreign policy. He is one of the reasons that we are bogged down right now in a nightmare in Iraq. He's been a key figure in selling out the average American worker, in order to protect the interests of the powerful, who have always paid his way. And by attacking my career and my ethics in this way, if anyone has any doubts from other indicators, he has now shown his true character....
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More here plus video:
http://gregp.dailykos.com/