VA Senate race: Allen's campaign manager called Rove's "heir apparent"

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Senate Race Fast Becomes An Escalating Duel of Insults
By Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 5, 2006; Page B01


Sen. George Allen, left, and James Webb were mostly civil during a debate in Hot Springs. (By Steve Helber -- Associated Press)


....The election is more than three months away, but the two campaigns are locked in an increasingly nasty effort to characterize the other before voters form their own impressions.

The mean statements aren't coming directly from Webb or Allen, who have tried to stay above the fray. But their strategists, press release writers and spokespeople have been lobbing insults and carefully scripted zingers that they hope will stick to their opponent until the Nov. 7 election....

***

In an interview, Webb said the Allen campaign is undercutting his credentials as a former marine and secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration.

"It's an old Karl Rove technique," said Webb, referring to President Bush's chief political strategist, who is known for his hardball tactics. "They are trying to cut me away from where my true roots are."

In 2004, (Dick Wadhams, Allen's campaign manager) helped Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) unseat Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D). Wadhams's tactics in that race prompted the online magazine Slate to dub him Rove's "heir apparent." Another senior Allen adviser, Chris LaCivita, was one of the creative forces behind the Swift Boat ads in 2004 that undermined the campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass)....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/04/AR2006080401500.html

[Hippo_Tron]

1. George Felix Allen Jr. doesn't have much of a brain

So he's going to need a smart strategist to compensate.

[klyon]

2. The perfect next in line

Just like George from Texas, George in Virginia is not his father. This can't happen again can it?

[abluelady]

3. Is the Sky Blue? n/t