Webb Shifts Debate to Iraq, Urging Diplomacy to End War

Webb said that if elected he would offer "a different set of eyes on the problem."

The return to the Iraq discussion marked a change for a campaign that has been dominated by personal issues, including Allen's alleged use of racial slurs in college and a 1979 article by Webb that some women have called demeaning.

In a two-minute commercial Monday, Allen asked for an end to personal attacks. "The negative personal attacks and baseless allegations have also pulled us away from what you expect and deserve."

But Allen yesterday unveiled two television ads, one attacking Webb on taxes and the other focused on Webb's attitude toward women 30 years ago.

The tax ad shows a rotating cube with the pictures of Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). "There are some people in Washington who think you don't pay enough taxes. And they all support Jim Webb," an announcer says.

The ad then accuses Webb of wanting to raise taxes on families by $2,000 a year and says he supports other tax hikes. Webb aides called the ad "another gross misrepresentation of Jim's positions."

The other Allen ad features a Naval Academy graduate who claims Webb made up her quotes after he interviewed her for the 1979 magazine article. The quotes did not appear in the article.

"I looked at him and said, 'I never said any of those things; they're all lies,' " said Janice Buxbaum of Springfield. "And he said, 'Too bad.' He's a bright man; he's just not an honest man. I don't want him in my party, and I don't want him in my Senate."

In an interview, Buxbaum said that she could not recall the exact quotes Webb had proposed to use and that the quotes were removed after she refused to sign a release. She said Webb had showed her statements he planned to attribute to her about "sexual activities and exploits" of female midshipmen.

"It didn't happen, so I never said it, and he was ascribing them to me," she said.

Webb accused Allen of conducting a "Karl Rove era" campaign, referring to President Bush's chief political adviser. "This woman isn't even in the article," Webb said.

Shear reported from Richmond.