Allen's ups and downs
2006-10-23
Source: StarExponent.com
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rss feedRub George Allen the wrong way and it's there, between the cowboy hat and the bolo string tie, just beneath the trademark sunny demeanor: the look.
No yelling. Never anything more profane than "gosh." But it's there, if only for a heartbeat - a steely and wordless locking of eyes that imparts the chilling certainty that you've crossed Virginia's ambitious Republican junior senator.
It's unmistakable because it's so at odds with the genial persona that has enchanted Virginia voters for 25 years and has invited comparisons with the archetypal Republican, Ronald Reagan.
The look has chastened errant aides and sent them scurrying. It has unsettled and even intimidated people whose questions or contentions Allen dislikes, and this has been a political season full of uncomfortable questions about race, character and ethics for him.
Allen's game face sometimes comes with the smash-mouth oratory that evokes his formative years as a college football player and growing up the namesake son of a Hall of Fame coach amid the hot rhetoric and bone-breaking brutality of the National Football League.
It's all about teams and winning: his team, always "the A-Team," vs. the bad guys. It's all about finding an advantage - psychological, strategic, monetary or otherwise - and using it without mercy or remorse.
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