No immunity

In an otherwise straightforward assessment of Virginia Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb, The New Republic’s Michelle Cottle writes (sub. req.):

Unlike, say, John Kerry, Webb has a military record that defies “swift-boating” — featuring two Purple Hearts, one Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and a Navy Cross — and an upbringing macho enough to make George Allen drool with envy.

I’m not sure what this means. Yes, Robert Timberg recalls that, one time, a “clot of pus and dead skin the size of a tennis ball blew out of his [Webb’s] knee.” But does that mean that the same folks who mocked Kerry’s war-hero status, spread rumors that John McCain’s Vietnam POW experience made him too crazy to be president, and cast triple-amputee Max Cleland as an unpatriotic coddler of terrorists are somehow going to give Webb a pass?

Uh, probably not.