If the polls are any guide, then former Virginia Sen. George Allen is basically a lock to win the state's GOP Senate primary, after which he will immediately plunge into what looks to be a corset-tight race with his fellow former governor Tim Kaine, the Democratic nominee.
In all likelihood, it's the expected closeness of the latter race that prompted Allen's campaign surrogates to lash out at one of his primary opponents, Tea Party-backed insurgent Jamie Radtke, for -- you know ... insisting on continuing to campaign against him and criticizing him in advertisements. Naturally, the fabled "Eleventh Commandment" -- the old Reagan diktat that Republicans should not speak ill of each other that has basically been perverted to mean that establishment candidates should get immunity from their opponents' criticism -- has been invoked.
The Washington Post's Anita Kumar reports that several state politicians have taken issue with a new Radtke radio ad:
“We’re all Republicans,’’ Del. Manoli Loupassi (R-Richmond) said. ”We shouldn’t be tearing each other down. That’s not going to help us.”
“Fellow Republicans aren’t the enemy,’’ Sen. Bryce Reeves (R-Spotsylvania) said.
The ad leads off by saying, "George Allen is an election disaster waiting to happen and Tim Kaine knows it," but aside from that, it's pretty mild. It revolves around Allen voting to give himself a pay raise while in the Senate, and the real pain for him is probably just having to listen to himself fumble around for an answer that makes sense.
Allen told Kumar that he is "focused on motivating and inspiring people," and so if his fellow Republicans would stop pointing out his occasional inability to form complete sentences, that would be swell.
READ THE WHOLE THING:
Allen supporters question Radtke’s attacks [Washington Post]
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