Immediately after the 20-minute speech, while speaking to reporters, the senator refused to promise that he would stay in office for a full term. He said he has made recent trips to 2008 presidential primary and caucus states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, because "they invited me.""If I get elected, I'm going to be the U.S. senator from Virginia," Allen told the reporters.
For how long?
"As long as God gives me the breath to do so, and the trust of the people of Virginia," he said.
Is that a promise?
"When we get to the future, I'll determine the future," he said, then quoting his father, former Redskins coach George Allen.
"My father ingrained in me and his players that the future is now," he said. "I'm paying attention to the present, the now, and we'll worry about the future when you get to the future. I'm focused on running for reelection."
Oh boy! Where to begin?
First, he must think we're pretty stupid that he visited three early '08 primary states just for funsies. Perhaps Virginians should issue him an invitation to actually focus on us for a while?
Second, you gotta love Allen's "inside the beltway" speak - of course he'll be Virginia's Senator. The question is - as the Post nailed - for how long? He could be Senator for a day before he resigns to "accept an invitation" to hang out in New Hampshire for most of 2007.
Third, didn't he just say he's going to be our Senator until he dies or until we vote him out? Man, it must've been fun to watch him back-peddle after that one ... I bet he did it with another tired football analogy!
And about that "paying attention to the present" malarkey: what's so hard about telling us his plans for immediately after the election? Is 2007 really that far into the future after Nov. 2006? If he's planning on setting up camp in Iowa in Jan. 2007, that's not exactly way out in the distance compared to the 2006 election he's allegedly "focused" on now.
I also take note of the following (in the picture caption):
Sen. George Allen began his reelection campaign by telling backers that it's "vitally important that you have someone in the United States Senate fighting and working to make sure we don't have tax increases."
Ah - but that's assuming that "someone" actually sticks around in the Senate, isn't it? And, it looks like Allen's good friend Rep. Goodlatte let the cat out of the bag at the same event:
But these days, Allen gets more questions about his possible White House bid than he does about his current Senate bid. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) even dropped a '08 hint in his introduction of Allen. "And who knows. There's going to be another vacancy in 2008. We like that too," Goodlatte said . . . .
Oops! I thought we were focusing on 2006?
Of course, Democrats have zeroed in on this issue:
That answer has not satisfied Democrats, who already have begun to savage Allen for running two campaigns at once and for telling the New York Times that being in the Senate is "too slow." In a release yesterday, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee derided what it called the "Bored Ambition Tour."
This issue could very well sink Allen in '06. I don't think my fellow Virginians will take kindly to someone that's bored with representing them and looking for the exits.
Just saying