We'll put aside House-Senate Joint Resolution 24 for the time being, since it's been stuck in committee for a year. That might be a bad idea (me putting it aside, I mean. J.R. 24 is definitely a bad idea), but I can't bring myself to contemplate the alternative.
Today's profile will be George Allen, Republican Senator from Virginia. George Felix Allen was born on March 8th, 1952 in Whittier, California, boyhood home of one Richard M. Nixon. Allen's father is the Hall-of-Fame NFL head coach George Allen, who led the Washington Redskins to the Super Bowl and received play-calling suggestions from one, um, Richard M. Nixon, among other accomplishments. I think I'm seeing a pattern here. Allen the younger received a B.A. in History and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.
After college, Allen entered politics, representing Albemarle County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1983 to 1991. He won a special election in 1991 to fill the vacant 7th District seat in Virginia in the House of Representatives. Allen's term lasted only until 1993 because of redistricting following the 1990 census. George decided to run for Governor of Virginia in 1993, and won. His tenure was limited by statute to only one term, and he left the Governor's office in 1998. In 2000, Allen became a United States Senator, defeating incumbent Chuck Robb in a hotly contested race. Since joining the Senate, Allen has become a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Like McCain, Allen is a divorcee. His first wife is Anne Patrice Rubel, whom he divorced in 1983. His current wife is Susan Brown Allen. They have been married since 1986, and have three children.
Allen is considered to be a staunch pro-business social conservative who lists Ronald Reagan among his heroes. He receives a 100 percent voting score from such organizations as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Christian Coalition, and the National Right-to-Life Committee, and a zero percent score from the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and the National Education Association. His foreign policy views mainly align with President Bush, but any stated position on the war in Iraq (and the greater war on terrorism), other than a boilerplate support for the troops, is conspicuously absent from his web site, despite his position on the Foreign Relations Committee. Allen is said to rely quite often on football metaphors in his speeches, and even carries a football in his official family portrait.
Allen's public missteps include calling the Civil War "a four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights" in 1997, and in 2005 appearing at Rev. Pat Robertson's Regent University shortly after Robertson said that an "out-of-control judiciary" is more of a threat than Nazi Germany or Al Qaeda. Also in 2005, Allen did attempt to make up somewhat for the Civil War comment by sponsoring a formal Senate apology for not doing enough to stop lynching, which he delivered from the Senate floor.
ABCNews's "The Note" only today quoted a Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll of conservatives mostly aged 18-24 that listed Allen as the front-runner for the 2008 GOP nomination, slightly ahead of McCain. Allen has also been polling at or near the top in several other GOP polls. I would say he's got the best chance to win, given the current make-up of the Republican Party. His conservative views and Reagan worship appeal to the Christian base, and his Southern roots and love of football should sway the NASCAR dads. The 2006 Virginia Senate race is shaping up to be extremely intriguing, however. Allen's initial opposition in the race was Harris Miller, a businessman who heads the Information Technology Association of America, a lobbying group for technology businesses. Miller has come out strongly in favor of voting machines made by Diebold and other companies, making you wonder if either or both parties had something up their sleeves in tabbing him as a candidate. In early polls, Allen was swamping Miller, but then decorated Marine James Webb, former Secretary of the Navy under Reagan, entered the race for the Democrats. If Webb can gather some momentum (and more importantly, lots of cash), win the nomination, challenge Allen to a real race, and even beat him, the entire Republican strategy for 2008 could veer off in a completely unpredictable direction. Webb's candidacy is still very new, though, and it's impossible to say if he has any chance whatsoever.
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