A question to and response from Tom Edsall of the Wash Post today during a chat about the New Republic article:

Fairfax, Va.: The New Republic's Ryan Lizza says this about George Allen:

"George Allen is the oldest child of legendary football coach George Herbert Allen, and, when his father was on the road, young George often acted as a surrogate dad to his siblings. According to his sister Jennifer, he was particularly strict about bedtimes. One night, his brother Bruce stayed up past his bedtime. George threw him through a sliding glass door. For the same offense, on a different occasion, George tackled his brother Gregory and broke his collarbone. When Jennifer broke her bedtime curfew, George dragged her upstairs by her hair.

George tormented Jennifer enough that, when she grew up, she wrote a memoir of what it was like living in the Allen family. In one sense, the book, Fifth Quarter, from which these details are culled, is unprecedented. No modern presidential candidate has ever had such a harsh and personal account of his life delivered to the public by a close family member. The book paints Allen as a cartoonishly sadistic older brother who holds Jennifer by her feet over Niagara Falls on a family trip (instilling in her a lifelong fear of heights) and slams a pool cue into her new boyfriend's head. "George hoped someday to become a dentist," she writes. "George said he saw dentistry as a perfect profession--getting paid to make people suffer."

Is The Post looking at this aspect of Allen's upbringing/personality?

Tom Edsall: Lizza's story was an eye-opener to me, and I think he has raised some very interesting questions about what the character of an Allen presidency would be. Both the racial issues and the way Allen is alleged to have treated his siblings would be of great interest to many voters.

As a national reporter, I am barred from writing about Virgina, Maryland or DC politics -- a tradition rooted in Watergate when two Metro reporters broke the scandal while White House reporters sat on their duffs.

Our story yesterday downplayed the Lizza article putting in the 9th and 10th graph of a story on page B1:

"Before he ran for governor in 1993, he kept a Confederate flag in a cabin near his Charlottesville home, part of a collection of flags, he has said. He once displayed a noose in his law office, which he said was part of a homage to the West. And he stirred controversy as governor by issuing a proclamation noting the South's celebration of Confederate History Month in April, without mentioning slavery.

"The history is well known to many Virginians, but a presidential run would introduce it to a national audience."

I hope we return to this is a more substantial fashion, especially since the paper has a prospective presidential candidate in its home turf, and we should won [typo?]the Allen story.

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very interesting.  I think this will be an "eye opener" for many people.  At least it SHOULD be!

I think we will see a lot of high brass and all other  ranks fall in line behind Webb.  He certainly has never abandoned the military nor has he stood by ideal when the war-hawks have degraded and questioned the patriotism of veterans who have come out against the administration. 

Two of my neighbors, husband and wife, are military veterans and graduates of West Pointe. They are socially and politically conservative but they oppose the war in Iraq and offshore outsourcing/H-1b & L-1 worker replacement programs. It isn't just who Jim Webb is that counts, it's the positions he has taken and the people with whom he is in agreement.

My neigbor commented that, in his view, a significant number of military officers, active and retired, are opposed to the war in Iraq and view offshore outsourcing as a national security threat.

1) Zinni endorsement is huge, because when he was on his book tour with Tom Clancy he was saying he was going to stay out of politics.  I hope hye explains tomorow why is breaking away from that for this endorsement

2) get some retired or former military types to take copies of the endorsement and start spending a lot of time in bars, supermarkets, etc, in areas around Quantico, Little River, Norfolk.  Especially if you can get a few former admirals (sya Bill Crowe, who is a Dem), to join in.

Start building the momentum for November right now.

The endorsements get better and better (notwithstanding the Partisans.)  And Allen's sociopathic behavior needs to be put in a very bright light.