"Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) has been changing his tone on the war in Iraq in recent days as he tries to fend off a challenge from Democrat James Webb, who opposed the invasion even before it started.

Allen has been one of President Bush's strongest defenders of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, telling audiences that progress is being made and victory is around the corner. 'Staying the course means that we don't tuck tail and run, that we don't retreat, that we don't surrender,' Allen said a month ago in a debate with Webb on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'

But with a little more than two weeks until the Nov. 7 election in a race that is virtually tied, Allen has started to issue a harsher critique of U.S. war efforts.

He said Friday that the United States 'must adjust' its tactics in Iraq, a departure for a politician who a month ago said it was wrong to 'second-guess' his decision to support the war. 'Mistakes have been made, and progress has been far too slow,' Allen told reporters. 'We can't expect to keep doing the same things and get different results.'

Asked what mistakes have been made, Allen said the Bush administration waited too long to hold elections. He also said U.S. and Iraqi forces need to do more to disarm the militias that are terrorizing Baghdad. Iraqis and U.S. officials blame militias for mass kidnappings and slayings, for setting up unauthorized checkpoints and for causing much of the recent increase in bloodshed.

Kristian Denny Todd, a Webb spokeswoman, said Allen is 'letting politics drive policy decisions.'

'He is putting his finger to the wind,' Todd said. 'What you are seeing here is someone who really must not have a fundamental understanding of what is going on in Iraq. All he has done for the last 3 1/2 years is spout the White House position, and now, when the White House position is unpopular, he adopts someone else's position.'

Dick Wadhams, Allen's campaign manager, said Webb is the one 'who hasn't taken a clear position on Iraq.' Wadhams also discounted suggestions that Allen has changed his thoughts about the war.

'There has been no change,' Wadhams said. 'He and Senator [John W.] Warner have made their positions clear, and they agree with each other.'

The shift in Allen's rhetoric has been pronounced since Warner began campaigning with Allen after a recent trip to Iraq. Warner, a moderate Republican, wants closer scrutiny of U.S. policy in Iraq, which he said is 'drifting sideways.'

On Thursday, Bush was the featured guest at an Allen fundraiser in Richmond. The president, who polls show is unpopular even in relatively conservative Virginia, railed against Democrats by suggesting they want to pull out of Iraq.

'They would have our country quit in Iraq before the job is done,' Bush said. 'That's why they are the party of cut and run. We will fight. We will stay. We will win in Iraq.'

When Bush left, Allen met with reporters and indicated he didn't agree with all the president's language.

'The president has his ideas on Iraq, John Warner has his and I have mine,' Allen said.

But Allen sometimes gives conflicting signals. A few minutes after saying that a new approach may be needed, Allen dodged reporters' questions by saying he does not want to 'Monday-morning quarterback' the management of the war.

Webb, a Vietnam veteran who has a son in the Marines in Iraq, said Allen and other Republican candidates this year are now saying things 'very similar to what I have been saying for two and a half years.'

Six months before the war began, Webb wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post in which he warned that the invasion of Iraq would diminish U.S. standing around the world and make U.S. troops a target for '50,000 terrorists.'

'I'm very glad people on the other side are finally allowing some of the realism to step forward,' Webb said.

Webb and Allen still disagree broadly on the war. Allen scoffs at suggestions that the United States should withdraw from Iraq without a decisive victory that would ensure that the country would not become a haven for terrorists.

'I want our troops home,' Allen said Friday. 'And I want our troops home in victory, not defeat.'

Webb said troops have done all they can militarily, so they should be gradually repositioned to other Arab nations.

But Allen appears to be adjusting his language on Iraq to try to diminish Webb's appeal to voters concerned about the war.

A Washington Post poll last week showed that 54 percent of likely Virginia voters think the war was not worth fighting. But the 41 percent of voters who say the war in Iraq is extremely important split their votes evenly between Allen and Webb.

'Allen is sending a signal to voters who naturally vote Republican but who are also concerned about the war that, 'Yes, I understand you are concerned, and I can see this is not going as well as you thought,' ' said Sean O'Brien, executive director of the Thomas C. Sorenson Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia.

Allen has recently tied himself increasingly to Warner, whose popularity in Virginia is higher than Bush's. The two have begun campaigning across the state together and appear together in a television commercial released Friday.

O'Brien said Allen appears to be trying to reconcile his past strong support for the war with the reality on the ground in Iraq. But O'Brien said it's always dangerous for politicians to seem inconsistent as an election approaches, as Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) found when he ran for president in 2004 and Bush labeled him a flip-flopper.

'Some people would argue that [Allen] is just pandering and going with the wind, and others might say he is responding to the concerns of his constituents,' O'Brien said." (Tim Craig and Michael D. Shear, The Washington Post, October 22, 2006)

Editor's Note: An index to coverage of George Allen on the Loper website may be found at http://loper.org/~george/archives/2006/Aug/925.html