Deriding D.C. power brokers as “elites” and “sanctimonious social engineers,” former Sen. George Allen is pushing a populist, “us-versus-them” campaign to reclaim his old job in Virginia’s 2012 U.S. Senate race.
Allen, meeting with Washington Examiner editors and reporters Thursday, portrayed America as a country in decline — largely because of policies pouring out of Washington that emphasize big government as the solution to all the nation’s ills.
“It’s time for an American comeback based on principles of freedom, of personal responsibility and opportunity for all, rather than mandates, dictates, redistribution,” he said. “Do you stand with the people or do you stand with the Washington liberals? Do you stand on trusting free people and free enterprise or do you want to have more centralized dictates coming out of Washington?”
Allen was careful, though, to lay the blame on the Washington-knows-best culture without directly criticizing President Obama, leaving those attacks to surrogates.
After former Gov. Tim Kaine officially announced his Senate bid Tuesday, Allen’s campaign instantly issued a statement tying Kaine, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, to “liberal Washington allies” like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., with no mention of Obama.
Kaine’s camp immediately responded by saying that it was “unfortunate” Allen’s side “has resorted to name calling so early in this campaign.” And Kaine, for his part, told reporters this week that while he’s a proud Democrat, he’ll be an independent candidate and doesn’t “march in lockstep with anyone.”
Allen will likely have to walk a fine line when it comes to criticizing or attacking the nation’s first black president. His 2006 campaign against Democrat Jim Webb was derailed, in part, because Allen referred to an Indian-American Webb volunteer as “macaca,” which was widely perceived as an ethnic slur.
Having once hung a noose in his law office, Allen now appears an easy target for accusations of prejudice. On Tuesday, NBC reporter Craig Melvin, who is black, wrote on Twitter that Allen had twice asked him over five months what position he played. “I did not play a sport,” Melvin wrote. Allen later issued an apology, saying he often asks about sports as a way of connecting with people.
But the brief exchange ignited an Internet firestorm.
Allen apologized directly for the macaca remark, but said he won’t be able to control what kinds of accusations are hurled against him in a campaign.
“All I can do,” he said, “is try to be myself and be honest and be forthright on what motivates me and try to obviously inspire the people of Virginia towards our ideas.”
