Incumbent Senator Allen Underplays Challenger's Service Under Reagan

An attack ad by Republican Sen. George Allen tries to portray his opponent, Democrat James Webb, as a lightweight, identifying the Marine-turned-novelist as a "fiction writer" who served under former President Ronald Reagan for only 10 months before quitting. It also criticizes Webb's continued use, in his own ad, of a clip of Reagan praising him in a 1985 speech despite widow Nancy Reagan's request that he stop using the footage.

The Allen ad is wrong about Webb's service in the Reagan administration. It's true Webb served only 10 months as Secretary of the Navy but he was an Assistant Secretary of Defense for three years under Reagan before that. And Webb is legally entitled to use the footage of Reagan's speech, which did in fact praise the future Democratic candidate profusely.