VA-SEN: Shorter Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (w/POLL! and UPDATE!)

To paraphrase the the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star's endorsement of George Allen...

George Allen has failed us on Iraq and the economy, but he got us tiny robots! Cool!

Snippet after the flip.

(Note: This has been edited to reflect that the above is the "shorter" version of the endorsement. For definitive source of "shorter" posts, see Busy, Busy, Busy.)

This would be hilarious if it didn't represent just how far Republicans will stoop to dig up reasons to re-elect Bush's puppets.

National politics magnify Mr. Allen's faults. He has rather blindly followed the president in his almost criminally inept prosecution of an optional war in Iraq. When, a few days ago, Mr. Bush's tune on the war changed, Mr. Allen sang along in the new key. It's now time, goes the witless Beltway locution, for Iraqis to "stand up" their military and police forces to defeat the insurgency. This smells like a sellout. Will Mr. Allen acquiesce in the cynical abandonment of an ally, now that fancy theorems and idees fixes have failed to get the job done, to worse terror and deeper chaos?

On the domestic side--again like Mr. Bush--Mr. Allen's laudable belief in the power of markets and entrepreneurship seems to exhaust his economic enthusiasm. There's little left over, once the commodores of commerce have been served, for the common seaman who must wait in real mortgage-and-tuition time for the rising tide to lift his dinghy.

But...(i)n 2003...the senator steered $3.7 billion into research in nanotechnology--building machines on an atomic and molecular scale--on the conviction that it really is a small world after all, or soon will be, and the United States should be leading it...

(And) George Allen's warm body is needed to help Republicans maintain control of the Senate and install federal judges who will prevent and cure the disease of judicial activism that mocks elected government.

•  That newspaper

  Is a GOP rag to the extreme.  It's a great alternative for toilet paper, however.

  by PaulVA on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:06:28 AM PDT

  •  Even as a GOP rag ...

    It is amazing how this is written.  Claiming that Allen needs to stay in the Senate "to protect the Constitution", it rips Allen apart in paragraph after paragraph.

    And, even though endorsing Allen, it really has very little to say about Webb.

    It argues that Allen is the least bad choice -- but makes no real case why Webb is bad while, again, excoriating Allen on multiple issues ...

    If this is the best Allen can muster, I truly wonder how he can muster more than the 36% supporting Bush-Cheney criminal conspiracy ...

    by besieged by bush on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:21:55 AM PDT

    •  Wow

      Talk about damning with faint praise. Best reason to keep Felix is for another "warm body" in the Senate to vote for conservative judges. Too much!

      by BrewUnit on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:46:02 AM PDT

    •  Damning with faint praise.

      That "warm body" comment sounds like a passive-agressive response by the editorial staff to having to write an endorsement of Allen. First they complain that the warm body is but a rubber stamp, then say that the warm body is needed to rubber stamp Bush's judicial nominees. Fascinating. I wonder how many Fredericksburgers will find that a compelling reason to stay the course with Allen.

      by Quirkygrl on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:57:04 AM PDT

•  Is this a joke?

  by michael1104 on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:07:08 AM PDT

  •  That's what I thought

    But you can never tell with the goddamn Republicans these days.

    by metal prophet on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:45:34 AM PDT

•  If nothing else

  This diary should serve as a gentle reminder to the Kossacks that think Webb is just Republican lite, and don't like or understand why any good Dem would support him, why VA Dems still need a candidate like him.

  by ord avg guy on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:10:16 AM PDT

  •  Webb...

    ....may be an ex-Republican, but he's hardly a DLCer or a Blue Dog. He's pro-choice, he's good on trade and economic issues, and he's strongly against the Iraq War.

    by metal prophet on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:46:43 AM PDT

•  Not just to diary-flog or anything

  But the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star IS the paper that gives the eloquent and charming Paul Burgess column space.

  And we expect different just why????

  by Jay C on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:15:37 AM PDT

•  OK so here's my question

  This seems to be "vote Republican" in the extreme...a sort of "yes this guy is a screw up and yes the president is a screw up,  but we still need Republicans in charge, darn it" thing

  What would you do if the shoe were on the other foot. What if there were Democrats in charge, but they were incompetent and corrupt?--but at least they would safeguard abortion and give us the right kind of judges. What's the best way to address the problem? Vote for the other party? How likely is that for a die-hard?

  The logical answer, of course, would be to purge the incompetence and corruption and detachment from fact and reality from one's own party. Everyone would ultimately benefit.

  by JMS on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:18:54 AM PDT

•  At least they're honest

  The only real reason to elect Allen is to keep the Republicans in the majority -- I suppose because we see how well that is going.

  by jamillahh on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:19:27 AM PDT

•  Hey ... I love that you posted this ...

  but could you make clear -- for all who check in -- which of this is directly from the paper and which is your editing/commented material ... Please ...

  by besieged by bush on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:23:00 AM PDT

•  Who needs a warm body?

  I'm sure they could exhume more than a handful of corpses who could represent the Commonwealth more effectively, and provide the Republican majority they so desperately desire.

  George Allen? He's only brain-dead. Thomas Jefferson? Now there's a fella who's REALLY DEAD!

  Not that I think Jefferson would be ready to rubber-stamp The Decider's decisions...

  by thingamabob on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:32:22 AM PDT

•  Hey, I live in F'burg

  I am happy to see somebody els eise is here too, unfortunately the Free Lance Star really isn't that Free after all, they are a die hard RepThug Rag.

  I am also very annoyed that I see a lot of George Allen road signs and hardly any Jim Webb signs.  Where is the Webb Ground Game?  There is only 1 week left to save us from this dumb ass Felix.

  by MasterHurrikane on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 08:17:51 AM PDT

•  Allen could win among Kossians

  would he make tiny robots his flag issue.

  With commertials like

  "When Senator Allen fought for the rights of the smallest among us, nano-robots, Adm. Web advocated behemoth s like destroyers and torpedoes."

  he would win our harts for sure.  As it is, I am sceptical about his sincere devotion to nano-cause.

  by Piotr on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 12:20:58 PM PDT

•  Sorry I missed this earlier

  A rec in spirit if not in action.

  by chuckles1 on Fri Nov 03, 2006 at 08:10:10 AM PDT