"Virginia Sen. George Allen and former Navy secretary James Webb clashed over issues and character in a fast-paced and contentious series of exchanges during the last of four scheduled debates Monday night.

The 60-minute debate, held in Richmond and broadcast live on 19 public and commercial television stations statewide, gave Webb and Allen a chance to highlight the issues they hope will dominate the four weeks before the Nov. 7 election.

For Allen, the Republican, those issues are taxes, same-sex marriage and a dislike of liberals. Webb, running as a Democrat, stressed the Iraq war and economic fairness as he appealed for support from independents and Republicans.

In a campaign marked by personal attacks on character, real issues emerged Monday night. In rapid-fire succession, the candidates sparred over energy independence, immigration, the federal deficit, the Capitol Hill page scandal, the minimum wage and secret spying by the government.

"My opponent doesn't stand with John Warner and me in keeping taxes low," Allen said in his opening statement, referring to Virginia's senior senator, also a Republican. "He stands with Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and the big-government Democrats who want to raise taxes."

Allen was hoping to align Webb with Clinton, of New York, and Kerry, of Massachusetts, two senators widely seen as too liberal for Virginia voters.

When it was his turn, Webb assailed the increase in corporate profits at the expense of wages. And Webb, a decorated veteran whose son is serving as a Marine in Iraq, lashed out, indirectly, at Allen's lack of foreign policy or wartime experience.

"Very few of these leaders are willing to invest their own loved ones in this effort," he said of the war in Iraq. "America needs leaders who understand these divisions and want to repair them, leaders whose experience in foreign policy is formed by experience, not by sound bites."

Allen, who is a former governor and congressman, appeared more comfortable with the fast-paced forum, which gave each man a minute or 30 seconds to answer complex questions. He stuck to his talking points and often looked directly at viewers for impact. Webb, by contrast, seemed to look down at his notes and wasn't as smooth, but he appeared aggressive and not intimidated.

Like the broader campaign being waged on both sides, the exchange provided a nasty, bickering forum for questions about personal honesty and character. Allen was pressed on questions about his racial sensitivity. Webb was confronted with allegations that he demeaned females by opposing women in combat in an article he wrote 27 years ago.

The Virginia Senate campaign has become a focal point in the national battle for control of Congress. On Tuesday, the national Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is expected to begin a nine-day, $1 million advertising blitz on behalf of Webb, according to sources in both campaigns. The committee's GOP counterpart already has paid to mail glossy campaign literature for Allen to hundreds of thousands of voters.

Webb, Navy secretary during Ronald Reagan's presidency, has closed a 16-point Allen advantage to a statistical dead heat. That's not how it was supposed to be. Allen started his reelection campaign this year brimming with confidence and with one eye on Iowa and New Hampshire, as he plotted a possible bid for the presidency in 2008.

The race tightened late this summer after Allen referred to a Democratic volunteer of Indian descent as "macaca," considered a racial slur in some cultures. The gaffe opened Allen up to scrutiny about his past, including his having once displayed a noose in his law office and his admiration as a young man for the Confederate flag.

Allen acknowledged that some of the trouble was his own doing, but he blasted as untrue allegations of racial insensitivity, including allegations that he in the past used an offensive racial epithet about black people.

The debate Monday offered viewers a chance to make direct -- if not particularly deep -- comparisons of the two candidates on many issues. The candidates continued to spar over the war in Iraq, responding to a question from the moderator, Russ Mitchell of CBS News, about the 2,700 Americans killed since the war began.

Allen has accused Webb of wanting to "cut and run" from Iraq. Allen says that he hopes U.S. troops can come home soon but that they must continue to fight in Iraq to prevent terrorists from operating there.

"We must persevere," Allen said. "We cannot be a country that just loses faith in our ability to protect ourselves. . . . Our goal is to make sure Iraq is a country that is on our side on the war on terror."

In past debates and on the campaign trail, Webb has called the war "a strategic blunder of historic proportions" and criticized Allen for not asking tougher questions about President Bush's conduct of the war and its aftermath.

During the debate, he responded to Allen's contention that Democrats would leave Iraq as a haven for terrorists. "Nobody wants to see terrorism in Iraq or elsewhere," Webb said. He reiterated his position that peace and stability could be achieved in Iraq through diplomacy involving other countries, including those in the region.

The debate gave Allen and Webb several opportunities to question each other directly, leading to several testy arguments that left Mitchell trying to restore order.

Allen repeatedly attacked Webb for what he said was his support for tax increases, citing Webb's statements questioning tax cuts championed by Bush. In an earlier debate, Webb said, "I don't understand how you can have a tax cut and be spending $500 billion on the war."

On Monday, Webb said the comment was meant to suggest only that he would roll back tax cuts for the wealthy, not tax cuts for married couples or cuts in estate taxes as Allen has contended in a television commercial and asserted again during the debate.

"I never said that I would agree with tax increases that you used in your ad," Webb said.

When Webb got the opportunity to question Allen, he went after what he has called Allen's lack of foreign policy knowledge.

Allen, who stumped Webb this summer during the first debate with a question about a port project on Craney Island in the Hampton Roads area, was left almost speechless Monday when Webb queried him about the Senkaku Islands off the coast of Taiwan. "I'll have to study it," a clearly baffled Allen said. Webb then lectured him about the island's strategic importance to Southeast Asia.

The candidates offered starkly different assessments of the proposed Virginia constitutional amendment on November's ballot that would ban same-sex marriage and civil unions.

Webb said he opposes gay marriage but believes the amendment would also affect contracts and agreements between heterosexual partners and friends.

Allen said he supports the amendment as a way to keep "elitist judges" from granting gays the right to marry despite Virginia laws to the contrary. "This is a way to protect the values and view of the people of Virginia," he said.

In response to a question about day-laborer centers in Herndon, Allen said Webb's positions on immigration would reward illegal behavior. "This is a country that has been built by legal immigrants, and we should not be rewarding illegal behavior," Allen said.

Webb accused Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress of failing to secure the borders, making the day-laborer centers a necessary step for local governments.

Allen called for a balanced-budget amendment and a line-item veto to help control spending. Webb, who railed against corporate profits, said big companies should pay more.

Allen questioned Webb's commitment to the war on terrorism, asking whether he supported the National Security Agency's wiretapping. Webb said he understands the need for such spying but would insist on oversight from Congress and judges." (Michael D. Shear and Tim Craig, The Washington Post, October 10, 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