Virginia Senate Race Gets Nastier

Consider it one more race stuck in the muck. Today it was Virginia's turn, when Republican Sen. George Allen's campaign sent out a press release detailing steamy sex scenes in novels written during the last 30 years by his opponent, Jim Webb, CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports.

"It's just a classic example of the way this campaign has worked. It's smear after smear," Webb says.

But wait a minute. This race was supposed to be about issues, mostly Iraq. Allen is for the war. Webb, a former Navy secretary and decorated Vietnam vet, is against it.

"We must refocus our foreign policy, and that begins with getting our combat troops out of Iraq," Webb said on the campaign trail recently.

Sen. Allen also likes to talk policy while he campaigns.

But their television ads air in a parallel universe, where no personal attack seems out of bounds. A Democratic ad associates Allen with "scandals, slurs and insults." A Republican campaign ad says Webb "declared the Naval Academy a horny women's dream."

It's gotten so bad that even as Sen. Allen's campaign takes the low road, his wife Susan pleads for the high.

"This campaign has gotten off-track, with some personal attacks and some other things that have unfortunately gathered more attention than what is important, and that is dealing with the future and talking about issues," Susan Allen says.

The issue right now is winning. The Virginia senate seat is considered a must-win by both sides, and it's very close. That may mean that no mud goes un-slung.