Sunday, October 22, 2006

Flip-Flopping - Allen's History


Many Virginians were shocked when they read that Sen. George Felix Allen, Jr., was flip-flopping on the Iraqi War.

After all, this is a solid man of purpose; the steadfast, "principled" former governor and senator who voters know because everything he says, he absolutely means.

To borrow a phrase from my blogging brethren at Raising Kaine, oh really?

A walk down history lane reveals something entirely different. Allen has flip-flopped before; in fact, his "principled" pronouncements have been war casualties during hotly-contested campaigns.

Today the Washington Post notes that a mere month ago Allen was staunchly defending Bush's War. Apparently all that talk about staying the course, well, forget it about it. This close to Nov. 7, he's now got an election to steal, er, win.

Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) has been changing his tone on the war in Iraq in recent days as he tries to fend off a challenge from Democrat James Webb, who opposed the invasion even before it started.

Allen has been one of President Bush's strongest defenders of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, telling audiences that progress is being made and victory is around the corner. "Staying the course means that we don't tuck tail and run, that we don't retreat, that we don't surrender," Allen said a month ago in a debate with Webb on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Yes, "[m]istakes have been made," Allen readily admits to the media, "and progress has been far too slow."

But tell us, dear goober senator, just exactly who made these mistakes????? It's not like they happened in a vacuum. Oh, that's right, the White House and the rubberstamp GOP Congress who refused to do any oversight and framed any Democrat who questioned the administration as fiends "giving aid and comfort to the enemy."

When Allen was just a congressional pup being weaned off his famous father's tit, one of Allen's first vote in Congress was to support Democratic efforts to strike down Bush I's abortion "gag rule," a federal law that prohibited anyone from mentioning abortion at taxpayer-funded clinics.
Yet today, Allen touts himself as a committed pro-life candidate. OntheIssues, a Web site dedicated to providing the stances of every political leader, pronounced Allen as a strong enemy of a woman's right to choose. In fact, Allen now has a 100 percent pro-life voting record.

Moreover, State Sen. Benjamin Lambert's endorsement notwithstanding, Allen's newfound diversity mind-set is one huge flip-flop from his past record.

Everyone knows that in Allen opposed the Martin Luther King Holiday; and yes, he kept Confederate imagery in his office while governor, but it was only to honor Southern heritage, which he had absolutely no claim to being from California and "passing" as a gentile.

Indeed, during the debate on whether women should be admitted to all-male Virginia Military Institute, Allen lashed out at those who would sully "the future of educational diversity" by insisting women be allowed to attend.

But even more recently, Allen voted in 2000 against a bill that would have required companies to level the playing field for minorities; the good ol' boys network was safe from the meddling federal scumbags.

Howling Latina is simply amazed that Allen has had the sheer gall to accuse Webb of being insensitive to women and minorities; and that GOP drones have had the balls to parrot his lying talking points.

Well, here are a few quotes from Allen during the dispute as to whether women should be admitted to VMI or not as reported by the Washington Post on May 24, 1994.

[F]ighting an "opponent ... possessed of vastly superior resources and numbers," [Allen]compared VMI's efforts to remain all-male to the stand by cadets against Union troops during a Civil War battle at nearby New Market.

He pledged to "stand up to the arrogant, meddling federal bureaucrats whenever Virginia's rights and prerogatives are threatened."

He described that as "the traditional American values and virtues of moral character, personal discipline, self-reliance and an unabashed and unashamed love of home, state and country, and the willingness to fight to defend them."

In Allen's upside world, ignorance is strength, freedom is slavery and war is peace. Banning women from VMI was virtuous; decorating his house and office with symbols of slavery was strength; and the preemptive war in Iraq that has cost hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries was freedom on the march.

Yep, this is the guy everyone should vote for. Virginia's racist fighting dude ranch hero.

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