Allen's last gasps

George Allen's defeat in Virginia won't be official until the last votes are recounted -- but win or lose, he has been beaten to a shell of his good ol' boy self.

By Scott Bass

Read more: Politics, News, George Allen, 2006 Elections

Photo: Reuters/Jim Young

U.S. Sen. George Allen speaks to supporters while waiting for election results in Richmond, Va., Nov. 7, 2006.

Nov. 8, 2006 | RICHMOND, Va. -- He already lost. Sen. George Allen's crusty-eyed Republican handlers will spin this as not over -- officially, Democrat Jim Webb was ahead Wednesday by 8,359 votes with 99.75 percent of the precincts reporting, falling under the mandatory state recount threshold of .5 percent -- but Allen's political career is officially kaput.

Sure, he could still win after the precincts recount votes and the absentee ballots are counted, but Allen has become only a shell of his former self.

For most of Tuesday night Allen clung to a 50-to-49 percent lead over Webb, usually leading by somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 votes, and the Allenistas crammed into the downtown Richmond Marriott were feeling the buzz of victory. There were hootin' and hollerin, fist-pumping cheers, roars of victory. Virginia's handsome Republican attorney general, Bob McDonnell, summed it up with a clap.

"Are you ready for a big celebration?" he barked into the microphone.

"Yeesss!" the crowd shot back.

"You're the reason we're having a great big victory tonight," McDonnell baited. "This is a party on the upswing!"

Less than three hours later, McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin found himself explaining why the attorney general couldn't share the same stage with Allen. Because the race was so close, Tucker explained at 12:45 a.m. Wednesday, McDonnell had to remain impartial while he oversees the recount as the state's top lawyer. You know, technically speaking.

As a shellshocked crowd of supporters withered out of the hotel, the Republican victors continued their defiance. Suddenly, their upswinging GOP was caught in a "tailwind," as Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling told reporters in the hotel lobby. "This is a race we should have won by double digits."

One could feel the gyrations of Allen's political timeline unfurl in the hotel ballroom. A tough-as-nails governor who swooped into the Executive Mansion amid a national GOP whirlwind in 1994, Allen once threatened to "knock" Virginia Democrats' "soft teeth down their whiny throat" in the run-up to the Republicans' takeover of the Virginia General Assembly two years later.

But that Allen left the fraternity. He dropped 15 pounds and shed the arrogant pudge that had split so many Virginia households. The husbands loved ol' George, the football quarterback, son of a famed Washington Redskins coach. The wives, well, not so much. It was his smirk, the snuff dipping, his handing out Virginia-made cigarettes to smokers he'd run into during grip-and-grins.

Next page: Supporters blame the media, Allen's soft support for gay-marriage ban