Like Bush, Allen can barely string a couple of sentences together. I'm a Republican and tired of incompetence and hateful neo-conservatives. It's time for an intellectual....like Powell. Americans will not vote into office (again) an idiot for President. I'm still a Republican, and proud of it, but I can not justify the hate-filled Pat Robertson/Jerry Falwell republicans who pretend to protect Americans, nor will I ever support a empty-headed politician like Allen.

George Allen makes George Bush look more like FDR and Silent Cal all rolled into one. An L.A. surfer boy sister-beater whose daddy coached the Rams, and lost his scholarship to UCLA. I am very ashamed that this douche came from my hometown... oh but then again he grew up in Palos Verdes, which is like Beverly Hills except everyone there votes Reagan and Bush.

I thank Allen will run and win. I can't see any dim's winning. Hillary is the best that the democrats can run, and she will loose big time. So the republicans will still have the white house, the senate, and the house for 8 more years. Stand back and watch the liberals gas and spew like A hot beer. does my old heart good.

Maria? nothing to see there either!

George Allen? Nothing to see here, move on.

Anyone that trash talks George Allen, doesn't know him personally at all, and is a dumbfounded liberal liar.

George Allen is one of the greatest things that has happened to the commonwealth of Virginia, he displays "common sense" intellectual politics, he was a great governor, and is a great senator, and I know he would be a great President for the United States of America.

Allen is an idiot. Warner had to raise taxes because of his borrow and spend policies and those of his Republican successor Jim Gilmore. Once Warner had fixed everything, George Allen wanted Jerry Kilgore to go in and screw everything up again by cutting a bunch of taxes and having a spending orgy, but fortunately the voters rejected him. Allen isn't even that popular in Virginia. He polls under 50 percent against Webb. Allen could only get 52 percent against a guy who didn't want to run again and who had a warehouse full of skeletons. Then he couldn't even win his own state against Mark Warner. Allen is offering 4 years of incompetent Bush style leadership that people have had enough of. No thanks.

What absolute fawning crap. Is this really considered journalism? George Allen is Ronald Reagam and Thomas Jefferson all rolled into one big conservative lump! Oh My!

ErrinF: That begs the question, "Is there any blog, which anybody who is serious about running for office reads?" At least, anybody the voters should seriously consider.

Here's the reality of the situation: Anybody with a real chance at the presidency wouldn't bother with this here blog that barely gets read or commented on.

"The Virginia Renaissance" has been used as a reference by The Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Roanoke Times, the Washington Post and the Washington Times.

Lilly: If you're going to throw out an incendiary comment like that, at least get your facts straight. The Confederate Flag(singular) was one in a collection of historical flags that were displayed privately in his home in Albemarle, not Richmond.

Virginia Renaissance? Is that a term used in the Senator's office, at insider fund-raisers or by Larry Sabato? Never heard it used by the commoners anywhere in the Commonwealth.

George Allen, Sr. never whined? Anytime the Redskins lost he whined. The other team was never better, it was "the officials," "bad field conditions," etc. I think that it's genetic.

Why didn't this reporter ask George Allen about the Confederate flags that were once displayed in his home in Richmond?????

If he was so terrible, why is his term as Governor of the Commonwealth often characterized as "The Virginia Renaissance" ?

Senator Allen is a whiner. He imitates others. He needs to tell us what original ideas he has in mind. He also needs to stop whining! His dad was not definitely a whiner!

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The gang that couldn’t shoot straight

By Jerry Mazza

It’s not just Cheney, the Gang Vice-Capo, who can’t shoot straight, sweeping his rifle to the right and down, following a covey of quail, and shooting instead his “friend” Harry Whittington with a chest, neck and face full of birdshot.

How straight a shooter was Katherine Armstrong, hostess of the hunting event on her 50,000-acre Texas ranch, who swore the ritual was absolutely alcohol-free, solo Dr. Pepper, while Cheney later confessed he’d had “a beer” for lunch, just one, no more; right, Dick, the check is in the mail.

And how straight-shooting was the White House that tried to ignore the story until hours after it was broken by Ms. Armstrong to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times as opposed to, say, the Washington Post, New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, or any other of America’s major papers? People might want to know if the VP was shooting people.

And how straight a shooter was Scott McClellan when he first told America that President Bush had been notified of the shooting an hour after it happened, at 8 PM that Sunday night, when in fact the event occurred at 5:30 PM that Sunday, according to Ms Armstrong.

But the white and darker lies, the obfuscation, the illegalities, Cheney not having an upland hunting stamp, violating the hunter’s code to hold fire in a situation like that, to avoid all alcohol while hunting, are the tip of the iceberg for The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

The title in fact is borrowed from Jimmy Breslin’s novel about a whacked and whacking Mafia family and their gang that are as stupid and incompetent as they are brutally violent. In the book and movie made from it with Robert DeNiro, it’s all darkly funny.

In real life, it’s not so funny. It’s a roaring pain in the head to know this gang sits at the helm of the not so free world, pointing missiles today at Iran, bunker busters yesterday at Iraq, and an Army at Afghanistan, managing to miss Osama bin Laden, the so-called 9/11 perp, but level what remained of the country.

Couldn’t Shoot Straight About Enron, #1 Bush Contributor

And speaking of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, these past weeks we’ve been introduced to the Enron trial and fellow Bush gang members, Kenny Boy Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, who couldn’t be straight shooters about their earnings, on and off the books, including shell companies used for hiding monies or, when often empty, being declared as assets or liabilities for earnings or tax reasons, as the Cayman Island winds blew.

Their lack of straight-shooting practically bankrupted the state of California with energy price gouging in 2001. Then too, the Enron plunge to bankruptcy took with it, like the Titanic, thousands of innocents, employees, their retirement plans and jobs. This while Kenny and fellow sharks sold off huge amounts of private stock, hyping prices with inflated earnings reports to Wall Street, fully knowing the stock would tank. It would seem Bush’s largest campaign contributor was a paradigm of corporate crookedness.

Lastly, Enron’s White House meetings with Bush and Cheney in April 2001, discussing the California crisis, have still not been fully explained, in defiance of congressional demands for full disclosure. What are they hiding, still?

Couldn’t Shoot Straight About Iraq

Our Capo de Capos, President Bush, Vice-Capo Cheney, Consigliare Rove, Capo of State Rice, Capos Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and Powell, and Solders and Button Men Feith, Libby, Armitage, et al, definitely could not, would not shoot straight about Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction. The lies were pounded like drums that Saddam had tried to buy yellow-cake uranium from Niger; that Saddam was about to use these non-existent weapons, and that we must attack him alone, unilaterally, preemptively, immediately in order to survive.

In fact, how straight a shooter was Scooter Libby, who outed Valerie Plame as a CIA covert agent because her hubby, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, outed the yellow-cake uranium from Niger myth as a complete lie? Though now it seems the word to leak Plame’s identity came down from Libby’s Capo, Cheney.

And so, after dragging us into the war, and declaring it over on May 1, 2003, could they shoot straight about what it took to really win or bring about a durable peace?

No. Undermanned, under-planned, undermined by a rush to kill, maim and grasp Iraqi’s oil, we were brought to the present disaster, Iraq today: thousands of American soldiers killed, untold thousands of Iraqis, mostly civilians, killed, and the conflagration raging, even after a bogus election to simulate a virtual democracy, which is as stable as the levees of New Orleans, another disaster in which no one could shoot straight, talk straight, act straight, to prevent the destruction of a great American city and the copious loss of lives of its citizens, black and white.

Couldn’t Shoot Straight About New Orleans or 9/11

Speaking of New Orleans, let us go back to that other domestic disaster of 9/11. It’s amazing how no one could shoot straight that day, how hordes of American military fighters were not available to stop the airliner-missiles from smacking the World Trade Center or the Pentagon.

Yet now we can see clearly in DVDs like loosechange.com the Towers’ explosions occurring at their tops and moving downwards followed by massive explosions at the bases of Towers One and Two. The combinations of explosions brought each tower down in 10 seconds -- free fall at the speed of gravity.

That’s truth, not the myth that redundant steel-frame buildings “melted” from jet fuel fires, which burned away in minutes. The heat and time a melt would take was far beyond the half-an-hour and hour-and-a-half before the South then North Towers fell.

Couldn’t Shoot Straight About Tower 7

And we are told Tower 7 was “pulled” eight hours later; demolished at the behest of owner, WTC lessee Larry Silverstein. In fact, the-no-straight-shooter Silverstein neglected to mention it takes weeks, sometimes months, to set up a building that size for demolition. So Capo Larry, when are you going to take the billions you made on your Towers’ insurance, which benefits you ratcheted up only a month before 9/11, and when are you actually going to build something? C’mon, Larry, try to be a straight-shooter just once.

Couldn’t Shoot Straight about the Pentagon Hit

But perhaps that’s all history, like the missile that hit the Pentagon, not a 757, because no 757 fuselage was found, no 124-foot wide wings, 40-foot high tail, or massive engines found. Only an 18-foot wide entrance hole, and an eight-foot wide exit hole from ring C. Oh yes, and a rotor from an Allyson Turbofan jet engine, much smaller, used for the Global Hawk craft that carried the missile that exploded on impact right through three rings of the Pentagon. What’s more, actual video tapes recordings of the hit from a nearby gas station and hotel, were seized by the FBI and never shown. Shoot straight, guys. Show them.

Couldn’t Shoot Straight About Flight 93

You’ve probably heard it all, including the chestnut from that loosechange.com DVD that Flight F 93 did not crash or get blown up over or in the fields of southern Pennsylvania (even as I thought originally) but landed in a Cleveland airport and its passengers were evacuated to a nearby NASA center. So it goes, truth is stranger than fiction.

Couldn’t Shoot Straight About Superhighways From Mexico To US

Also, let me give you major pieces of new news about The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight and what they’re up to. Two NAFTA Corridors Will Be Off-shoring Transportation Jobs to Mexico. This startling info comes from a story by straight-shooter Richard Vogel in the Monthly Review. You have to read this linked tale. Basically, the plan is to build two NAFTA Superhighways with side-by-side rail lines, converging and crossing the international border at Laredo/Nuevo Laredo:

Although I-5 and I-15 originating in Tijuana and serving the western states, I-19 connecting Nogales and Tucson, and I-10 that serves Ciudad Juárez/El Paso and provides an essential east-west link in the system, are all important NAFTA highways --the two priority segments of the NAFTA corridor system in the United States are the I-35 Corridor and the proposed I-69 Corridor both of which will originate in Laredo and carry NAFTA freight all the way to the American Midwest. When the I-35 Corridor is completed it will extend 1,600 miles north to the U.S./Canada border. Along the route it will serve San Antonio, Austin, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Oklahoma City, Wichita, Kansas City, Des Moines, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Duluth. The proposed I-69 Corridor will also originate in Laredo but will head northeast, serving Houston, Texarkana, Memphis, Evansville, Indianapolis, and Lansing to the U.S./Canada border at Port Huron, a total of approximately 2,100 miles. Promoters of the NAFTA corridors tout the system as the largest engineering project ever undertaken in U.S. history. What they fail to publicize, however, are the economic costs of the system and how the massive project will alter the landscape and environment of America forever. These undeclared consequences, however, will be calamitous . . . [Be patient, read on]

Couldn’t Shoot Straight About Land Consumption

The NAFTA corridors will be up to 1,200 feet wide with separate lanes for passenger vehicles (three in each direction) sandwiched between truck lanes (two in each direction). The corridors will also contain six rail lines (three in each direction): two tracks for high-speed passenger rail, two for commuter rail, and two for freight. The third component of the corridor will be a 200-foot-wide utility zone. To accommodate the railways and underground utilities, the corridors will run at grade level and will require extensive bridging at crossovers and intersections. The current estimate is that a typical corridor section will require 146 acres of right-of-way per mile, making the anticipated land consumption for the NAFTA corridors 584,000 acres in Texas alone (For a detailed critique of the Trans Texas Corridor Plan see corridorwatch.org). Total land consumption in the United States for the NAFTA corridors could exceed 1 million acres. Since the corridors are going to be routed through rural areas, this means they will consume a total area of agricultural land and open spaces almost as large as the land area of the state of Vermont.

Couldn’t Shoot Straight About Outsourcing Transportation Jobs

Also, the two superhighways and rail system are designed to break the back of organized labor in the containerization and trucking industries located in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The idea is to get Mexican drivers, loaders, et al, at the lowest prices in high unemployment areas of Mexico to take the “off-shored” jobs of Americans, delivering the China-and-other-bottom-cost-nations’ goods to Wal-Mart, Costco and others’ distribution centers in America. So goods would come from the container ports in Mexico to retail outlets across the US.

Not only is the real estate it takes to build these two passages enormous, so too is the enormity of pollution, noise, and general damage to the American as well as Mexican environments. Both cultures will be screwed but the Corporatos will profit. Have you heard any straight talk about this from the Capo de Capos or the Gang? Nada, senores, signoras et senoritas.

Couldn’t Shoot Straight About Dubai Managing American Ports

Big capital and the Big Gang are already working on offering up six major US ports to a Dubai management firm with at least two ties to the White House where the City Never Sleeps, Citi-Bank’s old theme line.

Reported by Michael McAuliffe in the good old New York Daily News on February 21, the White House links are one to “Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose agency heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World -- giving it control of Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port.

“Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for Bush's cabinet.

“The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration . . .

"The more you look at this deal, the more the deal is called into question," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who said the deal was rubber-stamped in advance -- even before DP World formally agreed to buy London's P&O port company.

Besides operations in New York and Jersey, Dubai would also run port facilities in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore and Miami . . ."

Okay, so there’s no straight-shooting there. They’re outsourcing management of five American major ports? Why? Aren’t we smart enough to do it ourselves?

Couldn’t Shoot Straight About DU Killing US Soldiers

And here’s a biggy, folks, that The Gang Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight, extending back to Don GHW Bush and fellow mobsters couldn’t be straight about . . . From the Free Market News and Rense comes a major bomb about the use of depleted uranium and its effects on our soldiers in the first Gulf War: DU Scandal Explodes - Horrendous US Casualties. Here’s just a shocking snippet from it:

But due to the use of depleted uranium in the battlefield, 56 percent of the 580,400 solders that served in the first Gulf War were on Permanent Medical Disability by 2000. 11,000 Gulf War veterans are already dead. Now 518,739 Gulf War Veterans, almost all of them, are currently on medical disability.

And on and on it goes. I guess they figure, what you don’t know won’t hurt you. And what they make up will be good for you. That’s the ethic in a handful of words. From the Gang That Just Couldn’t, Wouldn’t, Never Ever, Shoot Straight. All the more reason for you to get it straight and shoot straight, from here and at every other site still telling the truth, before they start to disappear, like certain reporters, thanks to certain people. Consider my advice, as Don Corleone would say, “An offer you can’t refuse.”
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer living in New York. Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.

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George Allen is no Ronald, but I think he will be the likely nominee in 2008. What does this mean for the Democrats. Well, if they were smart they would nominate Mark Warner a fellow Virginian. In a poll Virginia voters overwhelmingly supported Warner over Allen. Warner is too popular, smart, and innovative for Allen to beat. Allen will represent more of the same, another Bush II, which America does not want.

Not a lot of discussion about James Webb here. Allen actually does have a contested election in 06, and as a chicken-hawk running against a real veteran I don't think he (or the Post) should be taking it for granted before he goes off and runs for president.

No staunch Republican can claim to be a Jeffersonian when they support intrusive governmental practices like anti-abortion laws, a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, increased militarism, questionable presidential "privilege" and congressional acts that offend states' rights. Furthermore, Jefferson would be horrified to see church and state being mingled so much with the GOP as well as pandering to right-wing ideologues. TJ hated fanatics of any kind!

No thanks!
Virginia doesn't another 'George'.
Senator Allen recently voted against the amendment to the Medicare bill which would have made it legal for Medicare to negotiate drug prices. As the law was passed and stands, Medicare is not allowed to seek cheaper drugs.
The Pharmaceuticals contribute heavily to the Republicans. The legislation of Medicare part D was written specificallyl for them. It in no way helps Medicare recipients.

You have to be kidding me. He's been preaching that Jeffersonian values garbage since he fell in love with Charlottesville.
He conveniently forgets that TJ talked about the future belonging to the present generation in usufruct (in trust) and preached against debt.

People forget he was a Californian before he claims to have become a cowboy hat wearing, tobacco spitting Virginia.

People forget that kept a confederate battle flag over his fireplace.

People don't realize he didn't know who George Bush had nominated to chair the Fed the other day on the day he was to cast his vote.

George Allen is a total amateur. He'll slide nicely into George Bush's shoes, or maybe Virginia will finally wake up an realize they deserve better.

I am aware that Revolutionary references are most surely smoke screen and rhetoric. It just seemed overly disingenuous to use one of the highly touted democrats (Jefferson to Dems as Lincoln is to R's) as the foundation of a conservative campaign for President.

As far as judging the man for his times, for the majority of issues, this certainly should be the practice. However, the issue of slavery should be seen for exactly what it was, an abomination and complete contridiction to the words so eloquently penned in the Declaration of Independence and the Consititution of the United States.

Travelling back across the centuries does not erase this contemptable practice. Nor does it lend to an excuse "of the times". They were well aware, at the time, of the incongruity with the documents they had written. in fact, there were specific discussions to that fact at the Constitutional Convention.

This was the time when the two-party system began to form, mainly around personalities and not ideologies.

Jeffersonians (Republicans- label of the time;later labeled Democratic-Republicans; so please do not attribute this as a condemnation of the current Republican party) were mostly southerners who were decidedly opposed to altering their slave based agrarian economy.

Hamiltonians (Federalists), mostly from Northern states pressed for industrialization of the nation, including a national banking system, trade with Great Britain and consolidation of state revolutionary debt and were the backbone of the abolitionist movement. It is interesting to note that Alexander Hamilton never owned slaves and deplored its continued practice. This caused palatable tension with his in-laws, who did own slaves, as well as shake the early foundation of the Constitution and federal government. Unfortunately, at the time, he was very much in the minority and was more fearful that the fragle new nation would split irrevocably if he pressed his minority views.

Washington, who also owned slaves, at the very least, freed them in his will upon his death. Benjamin Franklin, late in his life, also renounced slavery and became a staunch abolitionist.

Sorry for the history lesson. Just something I am very interested in.

Too bad Allen's White House lust will look laughable when he loses this year to Jim Webb.

when Allen says, "Trust free people and free enterprise as opposed to meddling, burdensome government," I assume that this would include not conducting illegal warrantless wiretapping of American citizens? And when he speaks of "burdensome government," I assume that he voted against Bushco's largest expansion of the federal government since the New Deal?
No?
We'd better watch what we say. All this negativity might upset Deborah Howell.

I'd like to say "Variation on a Theme - Empty Suit/Empty Boots" but what most non-conservatives have missed in the past 25 years is that it's just an act. Just because Reagan, Bush and Allen have simplistic philosophies doesn't mean that they are simpletons. Reagan & Bush - Foxes in the henhouse. Allen would be no different.

Chris in Seattle: Don't be like the Conservative Internet nerds who toss out unsubstantiated negative items. You made it sound like the Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Laura Bush items. If it did happen, why did George The Lesser, lose his scholarship at UCLA; and what credible source is used for that?

Mike, the Lobbyist: "...it's all (and always) about the next election. That's the way the system is supposed to work."

I guess it's: Once a lobbyist, always a lobbyist! The system is not "supposed" to work in any particular fashion.

It works the way whoever has the power to control it wants it to work. Those with the power choose to have it structured as it is; sprinkled with periodic doses of "The Law of Unintended Cosequences" results. If the masses rebelled, it could be made to work in a different way. But, the masses haven't found it to be in their interest to do so.

It "happens" to be the way it is; but it is not "supposed" to be that way. Maybe with your expertise you could help begin to change it.

Actually Webb is from Missouri. But he is 100% pure homegrown Virginia compared to surfer boy.

If they meant Allen can be compared to Reagan, perhaps they might by a "triumph of the embalmer's art." That is to say, both men appear(ed) lifeless and dimwitted. This southern california airhead will never beat James Webb, 100% pure homegrown Virginia, in a head to head election.

The Washingtonian magazine does a feature from time to time that characterizes legislators in such important categories as "who you would not want to see in a bathing suit." In this high-minded exercise, Allen won the "not a rocket scientist" award. I have not closely followed his career, but I can't say I've seen anything to contradict this characterization.

I'm glad that Allen thinks it's so funny that Tom Daschle is no longer in the Senate, and even has the nerve to gloat about it. What a prick.

George, I hope for your sake you still possess that wonderful sense of humor on election day '06 when Rick Santorum, Lincoln Chaffee, Conrad Burns, and possibly yourself are all kicked out of office on your asses.

It's laughable that Allen tries to distance himself from George W by talking about stupid details that he disagreees with about the war, and then at the same time turn around and say he still completely supports the decision to go into Iraq.

This is political posturing at it's finest...or lowest, I should say. If the elections in Iraq had been held sooner wouldn't have made a bit of difference and allen knows it. The only thing that could have prevented civil war in iraq would have been to NOT INVADE IRAQ.

I really hope that Allen is the republican nominee in '08 and that the democratic nominee is Mark Warner, since a poll showed that Warner leads Allen 49% - 41% among Virginia voters. The election would revolve around how Allen drove the state into the ground and Warner came in and produced budget surpluses and one of the best economies in the nation. That is a platform I would love to run on.

>>>at least you knew he meant what he said.

except when he was lying. or rather, "forgetting"... or rather "misremembering"

George Allen is George Bush... dim whitted son of a famous family. Does the Republican party have any smart candidates to put forth. The only information I can extract from your piece is that this guy has a huge ego. Why do all Virginia politicians think they are Jefferson re-incarnated? Get a new theme!

If Rush is for him, I'm against him.

How come none of these GOP '08 guys aren't saying how they want to continue on with Bush's agenda--ride the coattails even.

All they want to do is try to recreate Reagan. Reagan had a following that no one since has been able to duplicate--I never voted for the man, but at least you knew he meant what he said.

Barry: thanks for the book recommendation. I will look it up on Amazon. My previous rant reminded me of my favorite Lincoln quote: "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Unfortunately, 99% of the politicians occupying the political landscape today would 'fail' this test.

RMill: as you undoubtedly know anytime anyone talks about anything from the Revolutionary War period (225 years ago) they are typically trying to pull the wool over your eyes. The Constitution is so heavily abused in this way it's amazing that the document itself hasn't burst into flames from embarrassment.

George Allen was the Virginia Governor who fired all the competent people from VDOT, causing massive delays and budget overruns of transportation projects. Gov. Mark Warner put it competent, professional leadership in VDOT, which has managed to bring in many transit projects on time and within budget. But we're still stuck in traffic from Allen's incompetency.
I can't imagine how Allen has the chutzpah to consider that he could be a viable president, unless George Bush set the bar so low that anyone can step over.

I'm not a big Jefferson fan either but I won't deny his accomplishments in his 1st term or him generously offering his books to the Library of Congress after the Brits burned it. As far as slaves, you have to judge our founding Fathers in there time not ours.

"...common sense Jeffersonian conservative principles?"

"Free will, free markets" is what I assume he is alluding to.

Frankly, I have done a major re-think on Jefferson but while he talked a good game (or wrote one, he was not much of a talker), Jefferson, who owned slaves (so much for free will), was hardly the conservative. He was almost wildly radical and hardly a proponent of free markets.

He fought against Hamilton and Washington tooth and nail from inside the cabinet, to preserve the agrarian nature of the United States and halt industrialization. He also opposed Hamilton efforts to preserve trade with Great Britain.

In short, until he broke with his own philosophies and subverted US law and completed the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson fought every effort to make America a strong, secure and independent nation.

Did I miss the passage in the Constitution that requires American presidential candidates to be lightweight former Southern governors with credentials you need a magnifying glass to locate? Allen is 1) pretty and 2) pretty lame. He makes George Bush look sagacious.

I read "Team of Rivals" and it was brilliant. I also was a corporate lobbyist in DC for 13 years and lobbied members from both parties. Most are well meaning but it's all (and always) about the next election. That's the way the system is supposed to work.

Judge, Recommend you read "Team of Rivals" by Doris Goodwin. A great book about our 16th and best President(also a republican) and his rivals. Salmon Chase who Linclon chose as his Treasury Secretary was the type of person we (stabbed Linclon in the back every chance he got) all hate but Linclon of most his cabinet were true patriots who cared more deeply for the union than they did themselves. People haven't changed since then, there are bad public servants who only care about themselves but I believe they are a minority. As far as Mike and screw the country, he is also a minority (thank God)

With all due respect, most public servants are decent people who want to do well for themselves. Screw the country.

Barry: cynicism is my middle name. Wanting to do well for the country isn't enough; I can't think of any elected official who obviously started out thinking otherwise.

Positive change is a hard road that runs counter to taking the easy way out. It also usually runs against your own self interests. Being able to recognize that what's good for you is not necessarily what's good for the country (firstly) and then act in the interests of the country (second) is the difference between a good politician and a bad one. You have to be smart to achieve the former; highly moral to achieve the latter (power corrupts).

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Judge: You are on cynical dude. Most public servants are decent people who want do well for the country.

2008 will have Virginia as THE battleground statehaving Marc Warner & Hillary vs. Allen & Condi with a marked improvement in turnout.

F&B: agreed. All you really need is good handlers and an absence of backbone severe enough to allow your empty head to be filled with whatever fiscal nonsense happens to be floating around you at the time. And then act 'resolute' when in fact you are simply stupid/ignorant. Perhaps Allen is the perfect heir to Bush.

Barry: I have to say I agree with you completely. Any suggestions as to whom the GOP should actually nominate if they get a brain transplant and become truly interested in fiscal conservatism?

>>>>having a decent personality, able to speak English, and having no criminal record is all it takes to be a presidential candidate

These three things are clearly out of the window after Bush.

Nowadays all you need to be a candidate is $$$$$$$$$ and a gaggle of partisan hacks like Cilliza and Limbaugh to follow you around with a pooper-scooper so they can bronze and polish every turd that the candidate spews along the way.

has anyone asked George Allen why he lost his football scholarship to UCLA? I think they will be surprised at what's in "baby face Georges" closet! - He's closer to GW Bush that you think!

Virginia "the mother of presidents" looks pregnant with Allen & Warner. This nomination is George Allen's to lose because after you do the math of unacceptable candidates for us conservatives (McCain get real)he's the only one left standing. George Allen would blow Hillary away in the general election because unlike her he is actually likable. But I think he would probably lose to Mark Warner. You go girl.

The last thing this country needs is 4 additional years of a Reagan/Bush spending philosophy. Just like after 8 years of Reagan deficits everyone thought the country was ok until G.H.W. Bush inherited them and the economy went in the tank. Expect the same to occur if George Allen is elected. I think W. should get some slack for cutting taxes early on as I think that helped stimulate the economy a bit, but then you need to pay the bills. Increasing spending and tax cuts is not the answer.

At the end of the day, Senator Allen is just another empty suit and Brezhnev Republican. This is a man who was shocked to learn that the Senate recently confirmed a new Federal Reserve Chairman! We don't need another shallow, vapid, and empty headed President. I hope the voters in the Commonwealth of Virginia have the good sense to elect James Webb and force Mr. Allen into retirement. Let him live happily ever after on a corporate board.

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Should have been in jail.

It's so sad that being fairly good looking, having a decent personality, able to speak English, and having no criminal record is all it takes to be a presidential candidate. George Allen is no Reagan, but from my standpoint Reagan was nothing more than a movie actor who should not have been elected. I don't include him on any hero lists. There are arguments to be made that he should be in jail.

As a longtime resident of Charlottesville I am not sure whether to laugh or cry when I see this windbag is being taken seriously by anyone but himself.

This really is a silly puff piece. Did he say anything other than that he really likes Reagan & wants to pretend he is Jefferson incarnate? I know he sticks to meaningless talking points like no other (or maybe no other not named W), but come on! Its your job to put news out, not to reiterate the meaningless lines he uses over and over again....

I think Jefferson is rolling over in his grave.
Ronald Reagan too for that matter. Chris I am just wondering how many times did Allen say Reagan. Saying someones name doesn't make you him. Where's Lloyd Benson when you need him.

I just can't this guy. LOL...he thinks he's Reagun incarnate! What a hoot. And he has the nerve judge to question the surpluses that would go towards education, lagging on his watch, and to other programs needing finacial assistance, also derailed on his watch. Surpluses bad for an economy? This guy is a complete joke. He should try out instead for stand up comedy. At least people would legitimately laugh out loud at his jokes.

'Insider Interview?' More of a finely wrought puff-piece - Allen's flacks must be ecstatic. Reads like Allen's bio on his Senate website.

What a great idea after 8 years of spend-and-borrow economics! Let's elect yet another financial bleeding liberal in the mold of Ronald Reagan, previously known as the Father of Our Debt until Clinton paid most of it off (and it took conscious political will to do that so spare me your partisan whining about who deserves the credit). Bush II then took the crown in that area. Thank you GOP!

Heaven forbid you should find an actual conservative like Mark Sanford (yes he has flaws but fiscal irresponsibility isn't one of them). And carping about Mark Warner actually running a surplus (oh, the horror, the horror!!!!!) is another clear sign of incipient fiscal diarrhea.

"...common sense Jeffersonian conservative principles" my gluteus maximus! Can't the GOP find someone who isn't such a flaming hypocrite? McCain has his faults but he's the Straight Talk Express compared to this fool.

I have a complaint. You simply don't interview and cover enough conservative republicans. We need even more coverage of conservative republicans. You are waaay out of balance with the Sun morning talk fests. If this keeps up, you may actually only do a 70/30 split in favor of conservative republican candidates...and that's just obvious liberal bias.

Thank you for your prompt action on this.

George Allen is no Reagan. He is no leader. Yes, he cut taxes in Virginia, which is a great thing, if you're willing to make the hard choices and cut spending to tax cuts.

George Allen took the lazy man's route and simply cut spending and froze hiring across the board, one-size-fits all approach that left many government offices--educational institutions, especially--unable to provide a proper level of services because they didn't have the financial resources necessary or the ability to replace workers who left.

His economic policies left Virginia in a complete mess, and Mark Warner had to come in and mop up after him.

Let's hope and pray the GOP chooses a better candidate than Allen.