George Allen: Boring, and Weird
As a recent transplant to Virginia, I've never quite understood the appeal of the Junior Senator from the Commonwealth, George Allen. Sure, he's one of many Republican Governors who got an easy ride in the 1990s by benefiting from the Clinton-era national economic boom, and yes, I suppose some voters are attracted to his endless fluency with football metaphors and his carefully cultivated good ol' boy image.
But presidential timber? I don't think so.
Still, after reading Ryan Lizza's long profile of Allen in The New Republic today, I have a new appreciation of Allen as a man who took a truly weird path to the boring persona he sports today.
Much of Lizza's piece dwells on Allen's questionable record on racial issues in Virginia and his less-than-convincing late-life conversion to awareness of the righteousness of the civil rights movement.
But the revelation to me was the discovery that Allen's whole cowboy-boot-wearing, tobacco-chewing, country-music-loving Southern Man routine was something he cultivated during his formative high school years in the hyper-exclusive Southern California community of Palos Verdes. As Lizza explains, Allen, while living in a palatial mansion that "looks like a French chateau" (not surprising, since his mother is actually French), got heavily into watching Hee Haw, tooled around town in a red Mustang with a Confederate Flag plate, and wore a Confederate Flag pin in his high school yearbook picture.
When his father was hired to coach the Washington Redskins, young George transferred to the University of Virgiinia, and finally living in the Southland he obviously deified, he was "like a pig in slop," earning the campus nickname of "Neck" for his manufactured southern rusticity. And while Allen has evolved along with other conservatives in his adopted region from semi-open racism to corporate respectability, he's retained as much "Neck" as he's abandoned.
As a native southerner, I find this weird and a bit troubling. Personally, I have all sorts of issues with the Confederate Flag and the whole self-destructive cult of the Lost Cause. But I do understand its appeal to people who have grown up saturated in southern culture; I may sometimes consider them SOBs, but they are my SOBs. The idea of young, incredibly privileged, golden-boy-quarterback George Allen of California choosing to embrace southern shibboleths at the precise moment, in the late 1960s, when they were most associated with atavistic racial attitudes, bothers me a lot.
To be fair, we are talking about the George Allen of a long, long time ago. Hell, I said and did a lot of stupid things at roughly the same time, and probably so did you, if you are a baby boomer like me. But I'm not thinking about running for president, and moreover, Allen's strange long-distance bonding with the Old South was not a phase he later abandoned, but one that put him on the course he still pursues today.
My queasy feeling about George Allen was certainly reinforced by Lizza's ample quotations from the book his younger sister, Jennifer Allen, wrote about life in the family of George Allen, Sr., entitled Fifth Quarter. As Lizza describes her take on George Allen, Jr.: "The book paints Allen as a cartoonishly sadistic older brother who holds Jennifer by her feet over Niagara Falls on a family trip...and slams a pool cue into her new boyfriend's head. 'George hoped someday to become a dentist,' she writes. 'George said he saw dentistry as a perfect profession--getting paid to make people suffer.'"
All in all, and partisanship and ideology aside, George Allen doesn't strike me as a guy I particularly want to see anywhere near the Oval Office.
Comments (22)
George is a fake. Always has been and always will be. And yes he is my Senator too. He is not the brightest pumpkin in the field.
Demand the Truth for America
April 27, 2006 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lizza's profile of Allen is absolutely terrifying, but it explains exactly why he's perfectly positioned to carry the GOP torch into the '08 general.
April 27, 2006 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
We should be very worried. George W. Bush is not presidential timber either.
Tom
April 27, 2006 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
In a reality-based world, this article would be enough to sink Allen's political career. Since we now "create our own reality" I'm sure the kool-aid will allow many to ignore the revelations in this article.
There is no zealout like a convert.
April 27, 2006 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
He seems like the perfect candidate for the Republicans. He doesn't even have to fake the bigotry, and from what I read, he rivals little George Bush in stupidity. All I need to know now is does he, too, believe that the end times are here and is that his blueprint for any foreign policy he would support. Frankly, it's hard to imagine any Republican having a problem voting for him.
Hoppy in Sacramento
April 27, 2006 6:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I had occaision to see Governor George Allen as the lone male adrift in a sea of hoop-skirted, Confederate-flag-adorned, generally aged belles on the dias of the Jefferson Hotel (I was a guest at another convention) ballroom in Richmond during the Daughters of the Confederacy convention a decade ago. Imagine Rhett in a sea of middle-aged Scarletts--hell, one woman was even wearing a dress fashioned from drapery. If he had qualms, he kept them to himself. Would love to have a copy of the speech he gave.
April 27, 2006 6:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
So our current prez liked to torture frogs as a kid, made fun of a woman on death row (eventually executed), and by some interpretations may have pronounced sociopathic tendencies.
And the GOP is considering following him with someone whose idea of a fun time is dangling his younger sister over Niagara Falls, and who professes to like to make people suffer?
Is this indicative of something bizarre in the collective psyche of the Sick Old Party?
I suspect there is more in George's past to come out. Something more than just sporting a confederate flag.
Hate appears to be the glue that is now holding that party together.
April 27, 2006 7:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
My queasy feeling about George Allen was certainly reinforced...
is reinforced and will always be reinforced everytime George Allen opens his soft-palated mouth. His dad had a sharped pitched voice and unique speaking style. This mush mouth talks and gestures like a sadistic older brother who wants to get paid to make people suffer. The George Allen of a long,long time ago is the same George Allen of today, just like the George Bush of yesteryear is the same "C" student, frat boy, draft dodging physical coward and business failure you see now in the Oval Office. Greatness doesn't just elude these guys, it runs away from them.
What commends them as "leaders"? Nothing except their oedipal desire to outdo their daddies, men who were infinitely more interesting and famous than their lesser accomplished sons. Mitt Romney is another pea in this pod of a GOP formula to lay the foundation for the Republican century.
Jeb Bush and George P. Bush are just around the corner, too.
April 27, 2006 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Try this on for size. The following is a link to a Boston Phoenix article about the 10 greatest political gaffes committed by the hero of Salt Lake City, Mitt Romney.
http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid9677.aspx
April 27, 2006 8:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Allen has been groomed for this role by some pretty powerful behind the scenes 'Publicans for 20 years. His fake cowboy days were still in full swing when he was destroying Virginia government as the second worst governor of the 20th Century (he was followed by the worst, even the racist governors of the 50s and 60s didn't actively seek to destroy the state government).
Unlike Bush, there is a little evidence that Allen is faking his stupidity. Quaterbacks graduate from UVA, but ex-quaterbacks don't necessarily graduate from the law school. This doesn't make Allen better. He seems to be wed to the self-serving goals of the ultra-rightwing. A smart right winger is not an improvement over a stupid one.
Why can't Virginian's dump this loser in the current election? Then he wouldn't be a challenger in two years. He got elected because Chuck Robb was tainted with a sex scandal. It seems unlikely that Allen would be similarly tainted, but maybe he's played in the same game as the scum like Cunningham? It sure would be nice to find any such evidence well before November.
If it's good for me it must be Good 4 A MericaApril 27, 2006 9:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm glad all of this dirty laundry is being aired for everyone to see. Like Allen, I am a UVa grad, but unlike George, I'm actually from the South (born in North Carolina, raised in Virginia) and every time I see this guy, I feel like he's tainting my degree and the place where I grew up with his faux cowboy pose. People in the south put a great premium on being authentic and it bothers me to no end that they haven't been able to see through the facade Allen has erected.
April 27, 2006 11:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Name recognition is an essential ingredient of being electable, and Allen has benefited from his father's reputation.
I have always viewed him as a rather insipid, insincere, empty suit.
April 28, 2006 12:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Being a "faux cowboy" worked for Reagan and W, and since the GOP likes erecting facades so the wealthy can get a moron in power that will do their bidding - here we go again. Can we get enough Americans to do enough things to get these morons, who are destroying our country, but getting boatloads of money to the super rich, out of power?
Tom
April 28, 2006 2:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
C&L has a Hardball interview of Allen with David Gregory. What John Amato takes away from it is Allen's bizarre notion that right wing talk radio is the pulse of the nation, and that makes Tony Snow an especially good choice because he's in touch with real people. I agree that's pretty bizarre.
But what struck me as even more bizarre is an apparent talking point for the day. Allen said that bringing Snow in as press secretary would help the administration repair its policy errors, in immigration and other areas. He was saying, apparently seriously, that he expected the press secretary to play an important policy making role in the white house.
Huh? Not in any white house, and most certainly not in this one.
April 28, 2006 5:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds familiar doesn't it? High name recognition because of his father's achievements, no particular accomplishments, no particular grasp on policy, well-connected to Republican moneymen, and a faux Southerner. This is the kind of candidate the party likes. Maybe they can go for a third term, with Cheney in the veep spot making policy in his bunker.
From Howard Fineman, in a Newsweek article:
When Bush stepped onto the stage for the first time in Texas in 1993, his father had been out of the Oval Office for less than a year. Bush the Younger had 100 percent name ID in the state (even if a lot of voters confused the father and the son). His dad’s approval ratings there were nearly as high, especially among Republicans. Everybody knew, and most people liked, the Bush Brand.
In that situation, Bush reasoned, no press is good press. Most politicians start out in obscurity. They need to build a base, raise money and establish an identity by explaining their policies and how they add up to a vision for the country. Bush never needed to generate attention so that he could raise money and make a name for himself. He already had both. Policy proposals could be issued as press releases. To be sure, he needed to do some serious, person-to-person politicking, including (especially) with conservative and religious groups. But he didn’t need, or want, a press entourage for such events.
For Bush and his handlers, the challenge was never to attract the media beast, but to guide and tame it. To do the latter, the Bush method was and is to see the media – as every other sphere of life – in black and white terms: there are friends and…everyone else. Access, such as it was, went to friends, to familiar people with whom Bush had dealt and for whom he had built up a modicum of trust.
In the 2000 campaign, he dealt with the media by turning his press plane into a fraternity/sorority house – BTB, Beta Theta Bush. Charming and self-deprecating when he wants to be, Bush understood the psychology of the plane, which was that, if you can be a decent enough fellow, most of the reporters who commit a year or more to covering your campaign eventually – whether they realize it or not – conclude that they want you to be president. Drawing on his Yale frat-president skills, he effectively anesthetized the plane.
As a result, Bush came to Washington with his press theory fixed: I don’t need the coverage, and to the extent I do, I can control it from the top down – from the forward cabin back.
April 28, 2006 5:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
We all do stupid things when young, and most of us learn not do stupid things when we're older, but most of us are the same person we were when young.
So Clinton, who learned early how to please people, made friends around the world, and Bush, who never had to please anyone and usually got his way, learned how to piss off the entire world and may soon learn he can't always have his way.
With luck, George Allen will learn he's still a nobody.
April 28, 2006 8:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have little confidence that Bush voters will see through Allen's "fuax southerner" pose any more than they did W's Texas pose. Both grew up in elite circumstances where it was "rebellious" and romantic to assumne a common man persona. Both have capitalized on that as politicians since most voters have a high school mentality when it comes to choosing candidates. It's more a popularity contest than a comparison of capability or honesty.
April 28, 2006 9:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
A good point. Bush is a casual sadist and is utterly indifferent to the suffering of others. Hatred is definitely a hallmark of the new Republicans. The only reason so many of them objected to the Roberts nomination was not because of his politics, which are VERY right wing; it was that he did not hate the same way they did.
Hatred, violence, and pissing people off have been elevated to ideological touchstones by these people. It's a hallmark of fascism. What's somewhat satisfying is that their hatred and contempt for normal Americans is what's bringing them down.
The disaster in Iraq was far from inevitable. After their blitzkrieg, had they attended to the warnings and advice from numerous experts, their own State Dept., and generals, the occupation really COULD have gone smoothly. They preferred to ignore them. For one thing, they didn't want to share the 'credit." For another, they just wanted to piss everybody off.
April 28, 2006 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hate appears to be the glue that is now holding that party together.
They have learned the power of the dark side.
April 28, 2006 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
People see what they want to see. Real country music sold out a long time ago to the fake stuff that can be easily merchandised, and it's the same thing for the down-home image the Bush team cultivated. We're all used to TV and image-making and they were very good at marketing it all. The question is: Can the Dems be savvy enough this time around to start getting the message out on Allen and the other bozos before they can groom him or whatever other dumb, sadistic front man as an authentic, down-home, just-folks manly man of the people who is going to be the wise Leader of Western Civilization. Exposes like this one need all the publicity they can get.
April 28, 2006 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting but baffling "manuevers" by a Harvard Law graduate - a guy who received a joint MBA from Harvard Business School too!
As noted, Romney's father was born in Chihuahua before the Mexican Revolution, resurrected American Motors, became governor of Michigan, and got himself on the cover of Time Magazine.
By comparison, what has Mitt done? Not much. He's an opportunist. He even did his Mormon missionary work in France (an impoverished Third World country only for Republicans). Whatever he has done, like head of the Salt Lake City Olympics was strickly for self-promotion. So how does he get from Utah to Massachusetts anyway?
April 28, 2006 7:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
When Bush stepped onto the stage for the first time in Texas in 1993 ... - Fineman
As one who met the future president in Lubbock in 1978 campaigning for Congress against Kent Hance, it seems more accurate to say that Young George had stepped out onto the Texas political stage well before 1993. About the rest of Fineman's piece and the post below pertaining to the utility of Tony Snow - truer words, sadly enough, have never been spoken.
Bush was also well known throughout the state for his participation in the Rangers organization, a sinecure if there ever was one. Tony Snow's been hired to convince us there's a real wizard behind the curtain.
April 28, 2006 8:10 PM | Reply | Permalink