Push them back, push them back...way back!

[ndebord]

Senator George Allen (putative Presidential Candidate in 2008) speaking on Fox about the appointment of Tony Snow as Press Secretary to GWB.

"The best thing that Tony's going to do is bring the pulse of the American people into the White House in those deliberations. People like Laura Ingraham and Tony and Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, they understand what's going on in the real world, and I think that's going to be very helpful for the White House as they develop policy to move this country forward....I think it will be good for the American people, too, to have one of their advocates clearly in the White House who's on the pulse of the people in the real world."

The wits say, "Tony's not really changing jobs; he's just changing buildings."

As for George Allen, he is God's candidate for President (as well as being the political son of the famous NFL football coach of the same name)!

[Lindsey]

George Allen is an even worse idiot than George Bush. Thank God Virginia limits its governors to a single 4-year term.

Here's hoping that the 2006 Senate race will send Allen packing back home and put an end to his presidential notions.

--Lindsey

[ndebord]

George Allen is an even worse idiot than George Bush. Thank God Virginia limits its governors to a single 4-year term.

Here's hoping that the 2006 Senate race will send Allen packing back home and put an end to his presidential notions.

--Lindsey

Lindsey,

Yes, hence my obscure subject line, as in pushing back American politics to some kind of feudal/theocratic worldview.

Virginia has been flirting with "purple" so perhaps they will send this bozo packing.

[Judy G. Russell]

"People like Laura Ingraham and Tony and Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, they understand what's going on in the real worldOh good grief...

[ndebord]

Oh good grief...


Judy,

And this is the man thought to be the frontrunner for the Republican Presidential nomination in '08.

[Judy G. Russell]

And this is the man thought to be the frontrunner for the Republican Presidential nomination in '08.Fortunately, I think it's way too early to be thinking about frontrunners at this point. At least until after the fall elections, for sure.

[Lindsey]

Virginia has been flirting with "purple" so perhaps they will send this bozo packing.
I'm hoping so, too! The Democrats will at least be putting up a candidate (http://rickhowellspeaks.blogspot.com/2006/02/as-democrats-eye-senate-race-against.html), which I had worried that they wouldn't do after Mark Warner decided not to run. The leading contender for the Democratic nomination, James Webb, is a former Republican, and served as Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan, so he's a conservative Democrat, but it's not hard for a principled conservative to be to the left of George Allen, who until very recently was trying to position himself as a George Bush clone.

--Lindsey

[Lindsey]

And this is the man thought to be the frontrunner for the Republican Presidential nomination in '08.
The frontrunner? Is he really polling higher than McCain? I didn't think he was polling more than single digits. And that would agree with what Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election,_2008#Republicans) is showing. (They have the leading three candidates at this point as Condoleezza Rice in the top slot, with Rudolph Giuliani, and John McCain battling it out for second place. Allen is in 5th place with somewhere between 6 and 8 percent.)

But I agree with Judy that it's way too early for any of that to mean very much.

--Lindsey

[ndebord]

The frontrunner? Is he really polling higher than McCain? I didn't think he was polling more than single digits. And that would agree with what Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election,_2008#Republicans) is showing. (They have the leading three candidates at this point as Condoleezza Rice in the top slot, with Rudolph Giuliani, and John McCain battling it out for second place. Allen is in 5th place with somewhere between 6 and 8 percent.)

But I agree with Judy that it's way too early for any of that to mean very much.

--Lindsey

Lindsey,

Really? I had thought he was further up in the polls than that. He is known as "Bush Heavy" for being further right than the current leader of the free world. As such, he has a hold on the conservative base that the others could only wish for.

[Lindsey]

Really? I had thought he was further up in the polls than that. He is known as "Bush Heavy" for being further right than the current leader of the free world. As such, he has a hold on the conservative base that the others could only wish for.
It appears to me that Bush's conservative base is rapidly diminishing. And meanwhile, Allen seems to be consciously trying to run away from Bush, even though not so long ago, he appeared to be trying to present himself as a GWB clone, down to the cowboy hat and boots (not exactly standard attire in Virginia).

And Bush is not the only association Allen appears to have thrown overboard. TNR (http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=16283) has had a couple of recent articles about the criticism Allen is receiving -- from Virginia newspapers, no less -- regarding "Allen's long embrace of the Confederate flag" and his very recent repudiation of that and other symbols he until recently displayed with pride:

In a withering indictment of Allen, Richmond Times Dispatch columnist Michael Paul Williams writes (http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137835690017) about Allen's recent moves to change his image on matters of race:

Only Allen knows what's in his heart. But from where I sit, this looks like an Allen image makeover as he eyes the White House. Call it conservatism with an emphasis on the con....

Perhaps he took stock of his presidential ambitions and realized his record and personal history more resembled that of a Dixiecrat than the "common-sense Jeffersonian conservative" he touts himself as.

About Allen's explanation for his youthful enthusiasm for the flag, Williams writes:

But well into his political career, Allen hadn't learned enough not to hang a Confederate flag in his rural log cabin or decorate his law office with a hangman's noose.

His explanation to the magazine doesn't wash with anyone who recalls the late'60s, the time Allen attended high school.

Youths across America "bucked authority" by growing their hair long, burning their draft cards and protesting war and racism. Allen's expression of rebellion was an unabashed romance with Johnny Reb?
I suspect he may have done no more than alienate both camps.


--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

I suspect he may have done no more than alienate both camps.A fate devoutly to be desired for that character... (Allen was the graduation speaker at JMU on Saturday. My cousin's daughter was graduating and refused to go to the main graduation exercises because she refused to listen to Allen. They all went to the individual department exercises instead...)

[Lindsey]

(Allen was the graduation speaker at JMU on Saturday. My cousin's daughter was graduating and refused to go to the main graduation exercises because she refused to listen to Allen. They all went to the individual department exercises instead...)
And I'm sure those were more inspiring anyway. I can't imagine anything more painful than to have to sit through an address by Mr. Happy-Face and pretend to take it seriously.

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

I can't imagine anything more painful than to have to sit through an address by Mr. Happy-Face and pretend to take it seriously.I no longer bother pretending when it comes to politicians.

[Lindsey]

I no longer bother pretending when it comes to politicians.
It gets more and more difficult!

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

It gets more and more difficult!Ain't that the truth...