"In U.S. Sen. George Allen’s campaign, it’s time to hide the candidate and pass the ammunition.

Over in Jim Webb’s camp, the Democratic Party challenger is getting big-time help from national Democrats and U.S. senators who see Virginia as one of the keys to regaining control of the Senate.

They are firing attack ads at Allen, blasting his character, and helping Webb raise money for more such ads.

Allen’s ads attack Webb on 27-year-old writings about his opposition then to women in combat and harsh language about women at the U.S. Naval Academy. Other ads charge that Webb would roll back every tax cut put in place by President Bush even though Webb said he would end 'some' tax cuts because of the expense of fighting the war in Iraq.

Allen’s tax ads appear to be a bid to build a wall to avoid mass migration of sometime-GOP voters disgusted with the war in Iraq and the performance of President Bush and the Republican-led Congress.

The ads try to scare voters into believing everyone would pay much higher taxes if Webb were elected and were to vote to somehow roll back 'all' of Bush’s tax cuts, despite the fact Webb did not say he would do that.

Meanwhile, Webb is benefiting from a national Democratic TV ad that accuses Allen of voting against body armor for troops in Iraq.

That ad is another piece of evidence that more than one side throws up misleading TV spots. The ad’s problem is that it cites one party-line vote where a Democrat’s legislation died and ignores other votes Allen made to provide body armor.

The voters’ mood in Virginia seems as sour as the ads, which are craftily designed to sow doubts and suppress voter turnout.

The hide-the-candidate strategy began on Allen’s side a week ago.

When campaigns spend millions in targeted attacks, they don’t want a candidate spoiling the message.

Allen, a man reporters have watched spit tobacco juice nearly onto people’s shoes, without hitting them, has been hitting his own boots with spoken bullets lately.

So the Allen campaign, which desires to stay on message and to stop talking about its own character issues, is making the candidate less available to reporters who might have questions he doesn’t want to answer.

He was hurried out of the Oct. 9 studio so fast after the final Allen-Webb debate that Associated Press reporter and humorist Bob Lewis dubbed Allen’s departure 'cut and run.'

A Washington Post piece on hiding Allen ran Oct. 12 and noted a new high-tech tactic for protecting Allen from reporters’ questions.

'The campaign has begun using a conference-calling system to conduct telephone-based news conferences, which are common in the last months of many campaigns,' reported Michael D. Shear.

In one recent phone conference call, 'Allen was asked a handful of questions, and reporters were not permitted to ask follow-up questions,' Shear said. 'The phones of reporters who the campaign believed would ask tough questions were simply kept on mute the entire time.'

The man in commend of the mute button is Allen campaign manager Dick Wadhams, a Colorado political operative whose knowledge of Virginia issues, ways and means is believed sadly lacking by some GOP figures.

Why would Wadhams want to hide Allen and shield him from tough questions?

Wadhams, an understudy of Karl Rove, likes to set and say the campaign message himself, protecting against gaffes and doling out harsh words he would never want in Allen’s mouth.

Wadhams is well known in Washington political circles for his faith in the value of negative attacks, hard hits and constant cookie-cutter spin deriding opponents.

An effective ad for Webb some day might just be stringing together years of Wadhams vitriol, now that he is the official mouth of Allen.

Wadhams was hired to run a 2006 Senate campaign designed to morph into a 2008 Allen presidential effort. He is obviously a master of running in two directions at once, although he refuses to talk about the 2008 effort that was perhaps the chief direction of his hire.

With Allen’s 2008 White House hopes in shambles, Wadhams now must produce a Senate re-election victory once considered a cakewalk. The race is now rated merely 'leaning Republican.'

It can’t be too heavy a lean or the national Democrats would not be spending $1 million or more to boost Webb toward the finish line. Someone’s polls must be showing real Allen vulnerability for that kind of money to flow into Virginia in the last month of a tight race.

A few intemperate blasts from Colorado Republican Wadhams, and Allen’s August-to-September tailspin could resume.

Reporters are still asking each other and party professionals if Webb has enough of a campaign to take advantage of the national wind blowing at the backs of Democrats this fall.

With Wadhams coaching Allen on which direction he should carry the ball and now speaking for him in the sudden absence of the candidate, perhaps Webb can match Allen one nasty ad for another and hobble to the finish line.

National party money is a fair issue in this race. It may be directing the wind in both directions as the contest comes down to the wire on Nov. 7." (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, October 14, 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