"George Allen: Disturbed and Disturbing"

[Full disclosure/related/side point:  for several months in 2005, Google News picked up Raising Kaine as "news," until they dropped us, supposedly because we were backing a specific candidate.  Of course, Raising Kaine was backing not just Tim Kaine, but also pretty much all Democrats and Progressives in Virginia.  In other words, we were doing just what Red State does.  However, Google apparently felt no need to be consistent, classifying Red State as news but not Raising Kaine...or Daily Kos for that matter.  Strange.]

Anyway, when I did a Google News search for George Allen a little while ago, the first story that popped up was from Red State.  Knowing that Red State is a rabidly pro-Republican blog, the title intrigued me: "George Allen: Disturbed and Disturbing."  What on earth, I thought?  Of course, my curiosity was piqued and I had to take a closer look. Here's the gist of it:

I am a Virginian and a conservative.  When I was not yet in double digits I helped out on George Allen's gubernatorial campaign.  I knocked on doors for him in 2000 and barring something unforeseen I will vote for him this year.  But I won't be supporting him in the GOP presidential primary.

By now I'm sure most of the people here have read Ryan Lizza's article on Allen in The New Republic. ...It is not a profile in courage or compassion... or perhaps even commonsense.

There are two parts to it, in my mind.  First is his flirtations with the Confederacy.  Second is his alleged abuse of his younger siblings.  The former has received more press and as such requires a deeper treatment, but the latter is just as troubling...

[...]

For me it all adds to a lot of questions of character.  Why, if he was disturbed by the places he saw, would he adopt the same symbol as many of the people making that place disturbing?  Absent that family tie, where does his affection for the Civil War era South come from?  If its not for the Civil War era South, why adopt an image from that time to show an affection for the modern South?  And finally, did he abuse his siblings?

Good questions.  Oh, and by the way, if you don't think the author of this piece is a conservative, you should check out his other articles here.  The bottom line is that this guy's definitely a right winger, a self-described "conservative Christian" whose a big supporter of the Virginia Conservative Action PAC.  Yet, he finds George Allen to be "disturbed and disturbing."  That's fascinating.

My main question now is this: who out there does NOT find George Allen's abusive and other bizarre behavior to be, at the minimum, troubling?  And if you don't, why don't you?

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