This Is Funny

Headline: "Slumping Fox News celebrating 1st decade".

But the years of explosive growth have ended at Fox. Viewership over the first eight months of the year was down 5 percent compared to 2005, with a steeper 13 percent decline in prime-time, according to Nielsen Media Research. For 12 straight months, Fox's prime-time audience has been smaller than the year before. Meanwhile, CNN viewership inched up 5 percent this year through August. On a typical day this year, Fox's audience is 845,000 while CNN's is 466,000.

I haven't watched Fox (or anyone else) in a long time now. But the engineer in me says that a two to one advantage in viewers isn't a slump. Now, if the head of Fox news thinks the channel needs to grow more and faster, that's his call as a business decision. But the media is playing a game of wishful thinking here, I suspect.

Everything Old Is New Again

My best friend for many years was Roy. Oddly, he was a couple of years older than I was and was actually a classmate of my older sister. Still, he and I were friends for years and years. I called his mother "Mom" and she considered me one of her children. As we grew through our teen-aged years, Roy and I saw a bit less of one another. When I went to a different school for a few years, we lost touch. But we ran into each other later and pretty much just picked right up being friends right where we left off. But now we were legally adults.

For a while, I moved in with Roy and his mother, who still insisted I call her Mom. We had a lot of late evenings sitting in the kitchen and drinking coffee. Mom made a vicious cup of coffee. A spoon set into the cup center of the cup would stand up. Well, that's a bit of an overstatement, but you get the idea. Roy and I would also go out and visit various clubs and nightspots. Roy was a much better dancer than I was. But we had fun, met women, double-dated and were just average, high-spirited young men.

Roy had always felt he wanted to be more than the lower middle class people he and I both were. He wanted to move up in the world. I did, too, but Roy really wanted it to be so, sooner rather than later. He tried very hard to be more sophisticated than his upbringing would lead you to expect. He was actually rather good at it, too. He routinely got dates with really nice women who were technically "higher class" than we were. Their parents liked him, too. One of the things he believed helped him become more sophisticated was Playboy magazine.

Now in those days, before internet porn and feminism, Playboy was more than airbrushed centerfolds (it probably still is, I haven't seen one in years now). It had "lifestyle" information for swinging, young bachelors. What stereo to buy, what music to listen to. What clothes to wear. How to talk to women. The whole works on how to be the man women loved. Roy bought the whole package and tried hard to be that suave sophisticate. He even had a Playboy Club key.

Now, I honestly don't know if that key was ever used. But I remember how proud he was that he had it. It was on his key chain and he flaunted it, even to women. I wonder if he still has it.

Because maybe he could use it again. (Or for the first time.)

Now, two decades after rising feminism and a fading nightclub scene helped close the last U.S. Playboy Club in Lansing, Mich., in 1988, a new Playboy Club is set to open Oct. 6 in Las Vegas, just as fresh and retro-hip as a pair of bell-bottom jeans.

"Things that become old-fashioned in a certain time frame, in a new time frame take on a whole new kind of mystique," said Hefner, the 80-year-old founder and majority shareholder of Playboy Enterprises Inc. "That is exactly what happened to all things Playboy."

The original clubs, staffed by bustiered Bunnies and spurred by the sexual revolution, spanned the globe in their heyday in the 1960s and '70s, from Chicago and New York to Manila, London, Tokyo and the Bahamas. At their height, 22 clubs were in operation, employing more than 25,000 Bunnies and boasting more than a million "keyholders," or members.

But they ran into feminism on one side and easily accessible explicit adult content on the other.

The Margaret Thatcher government challenged and then revoked the club's casino license in the U.K. in 1981. It forced the closure of the London club, once the company's most profitable operation, and led to the inability of Playboy to obtain a gambling license for a hotel-casino in Atlantic City, N.J., shortly after.

"Once we lost the gaming, we were really not able to financially carry the rest of what we were doing," Hefner said.

The last overseas club closed in Manila in 1991.

Today, Hefner's original idea of providing a roadmap to urban life by urging men to appreciate food, music, high ideas — and beautiful women — has taken on a new cachet.

"If you look at the magazine even in the early days, there were features on decorating your apartment, cooking, buying nice clothes, buying wine," said James Beggan, associate professor of sociology at the University of Louisville. "I think that they've always been ahead of their time in advocating what later becomes known as the 'metrosexual identity.'

"Society has caught up with Playboy's view," he said.

The new club, on the top three floors of the Palms hotel-casino, pays homage to the past while introducing its swinging bachelor lifestyle to a new generation. Lounge seating is back, as are the famous Bunny outfits, complete with ears, bow tie and cufflinks, designed by Roberto Cavalli.

"Ninety-five percent of the people who are going to end up spending all the money here have never been to a Playboy Club," said George Maloof Jr., the bachelor casino magnate who runs the Maloof family's $915 million resort. "So it's not even like your dad, maybe it's your grandfather (who) went. We wanted to create something that did remind people of the Playboy Club, but had a fresh new look."

Everything old is new again. I should give Roy a call and see if he still has that key.

FBI Opens Criminal Investigation On Foley

The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into the conduct of former representative Mark Foley to see if he broke Federal law in his conduct. Said inquiry should also examine who knew what when if there were violations of Federal law.

WASHINGTON - The FBI is examining former Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record)'s e-mail exchanges with teenagers to determine if they violated federal law, an agency spokesman said Sunday.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said the FBI is "conducting an assessment to see if there's been a violation of federal law." He had no further comment.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert requested Sunday that the Justice Department conduct an investigation into Foley's electronic messages to teenage boys — a lurid scandal that has put House Republicans in political peril.

"As Speaker of the House, I hereby request that the Department of Justice conduct an investigation of Mr. Foley's conduct with current and former House pages to determine to what extent any of his actions violated federal law," Hastert, R-Ill., wrote in a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The White House and Democratic leaders in Congress also called Sunday for a criminal probe. White House counselor Dan Bartlett called the allegations against Foley shocking, but said President Bush hadn't learned of Foley's inappropriate e-mails to a 16-year-old boy and instant messages to other boys before the news broke last week.

If the law was violated, I fully expect the FBI will also pursue who knew anything about this and when they knew it. If it turns out anyone, from either party, suppressed information that caused children to remain at risk for political purposes, I expect those individuals to be charged with a crime. There are some people that should rightfully be very nervous right now.

UPDATE: The Washington Post has a very thorough article up about this now.

The Enemies Of Free Speech

There is endless whining about the stifling of free speech in this country coming from the left. Tune in to almost any interview with someone from the left on the issue and they will be wailing. Endlessly. On television. But when it comes down to reality, things are a bit different. George Will explains:

Oct. 9, 2006 issue - SEATTLE—As the comprehensive and sustained attack on Americans' freedom of political speech intensifies, this city has become a battleground. Campaign-finance "reformers," who advocate ever-increasing government regulation of the quantity, timing and content of political speech, always argue that they want to regulate "only" money, which, they say, leaves speech unaffected. But here they argue that political speech is money, and hence must be regulated. By demanding that the speech of two talk-radio hosts be monetized and strictly limited, reformers reveal the next stage in their stealthy repeal of the First Amendment.

When the state's government imposed a 9.5-cents-per-gallon increase in the gas tax, John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur of station KVI began advocating repeal by initiative. Proponents of repeal put up a Web site, hoping to raise 1,000 volunteers and $25,000. In two days they had 6,500 and $87,000. Needing 224,880 signatures to put repeal on the ballot, they got 400,996.

Appalled by this outburst of grass-roots democracy, some local governments, which stood to gain many millions from the tax, unleashed a law firm that would gain substantially from handling the bond issues the tax would finance. The firm set out to muzzle Carlson and Wilbur, using the state's campaign regulations.

It got a judge to rule that the broadcasters were not just supporters of the repeal campaign, they were agents of it. Why, they had even used the pronoun "we" when referring to proponents of repeal. Their speech constituted political advertising, and their employer was making an "in-kind contribution" to the repeal campaign. The judge said a monetary value must be placed on their speech (he did not say how, he just said to do it that day). The law says reports must be filed and speech limits obeyed or fines imposed.

State law restricts to $5,000 the amount a single giver can contribute in the three weeks before an initiative. If Carlson's and Wilbur's speech were monetized at radio-advertising rates, they would be silenced for all but about 15 minutes in each of the campaign's crucial last three weeks. They continued to talk (the repeal campaign, outspent almost five to one, lost 54.6-45.4) and, aided by the libertarian litigators of the Institute for Justice, have taken the issue to the state Supreme Court.

This is the disaster that McCain-Feingold hath wrought. This is what the men who would be president think of your right to say what you want politically. There is a horrible stifling effect here where people can be silenced by creative application of campaign laws. We are headed down an ugly road - and everyone, left or right should be frightened by this. Far from being the way the left will gain power. In the long run this will be the tool that crushes them.

It is wrong, whichever side advocates it. And it will be the downfall of this country in the long run.

Scare Tactic

Here's a real beauty. AFP of all outlets is carrying this little gem. The report says that US farmers, in California in particular, are facing a "crippling" labor shortage due to the illegal immigration crackdown.

Farms across the United States are reporting shortfalls in the number of available workers, which in many cases has caused crops to go unpicked.

Blame for the lack of labour is laid squarely at the door of a crackdown on illegal workers crossing the US-Mexico border and the absence of flexible legislation that would allow farmers to hire workers on a seasonal basis.

Toni Scully, co-owner of Scully Packing in northern California's Lake County, said she usually hired 900 fruit pickers to harvest their crop during the three-week window. This year, however, she could only find 500 workers.

"We think about 40 percent of our workers didn't come because of the increased security on the border," Scully told AFP.

"By our estimates we've left about 20 to 30 percent of the crop either hanging on the tree or lying on the ground because we couldn't pick it," she added. "It's just heartbreaking because we had a beautiful crop."

Scully said the labor shortages had not been felt as severely amongst growers of other produce in the region, whose crops were lower this year for unrelated reasons such as adverse weather.

"That's the important thing to bear in mind — other crops like cherries and raisins were down from 20-40 percent this year and yet many growers still struggled to get everything picked," Scully said.

But this article is not exactly what it purports to be. The problem may not - and actually almost certainly is not - the "crackdown" on illegal immigration. Said crackdown not really having occurred in any meaningful sense of the word. The problem may be that age-old one. The real reason: the growers will not pay enough to attract workers.

The Western Growers Association, whose 3,000 members in California and Arizona account for around 50 percent of the United States' fresh produce, said the labour squeeze was being felt widely.

"We are getting reports almost on a daily basis from our membership," said WGA spokesman Tim Chelling. "If it's not a crisis then it's certainly close to a crisis. Millions of dollars have been lost so far."

Chelling also said the industry was also losing workers to better paid jobs in the construction and tourism sector.

Gee, get me my violin here. I linked an article that described the fallout of a immigration raid in Georgia a while back. When the illegals fled, wages rose by 14% and people were quitting Wal-Mart to get the higher wages. There's a moral to the story there. I, for one, am not willing to mortgage this nation to provide cheap labor to certain sectors. Kind of a shame that some are.

Iran Promises To Expand Nuclear Program

Not only will they not stop uranium enrichment activities, they fully plan to expand the program according to Iranian president Ahmadinejad.

Speaking to professors at Tehran University, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran hopefully will increase its enrichment program to produce nuclear fuel. The president has repeatedly rejected calls by the United States and its allies to stop enrichment.

"Allegations or charges by the United States than Iran is seeking nuclear weapons is a big lie," Ahmadinejad said during his speech, which was broadcast on state-run television.

No, all but the very foolish can see who is lying here, Mahmoud. Your neighbors see it too, which is why they are suddenly very interested in nuclear activities.

Hero

There was a gathering of a very exclusive club this week in Boston. Living members of that club are rare to begin with, since so many who join do so after they have already paid the ultimate price. Living people who have won the Congressional Medal of Honor are few in number. Such a gathering did take place, though. The Boston Herald's Peter Gelzinis tells the story of one of one member of that club and of one of the people he saved in the process of earning the citation.

The paths that led Drew Dix and Maggie O’Brien to the same bullet-riddled house in Vietnam 38 years ago could not have been more different.
 
At the end of January 1968, Dix was a 23-year-old Special Forces sergeant from Pueblo, Colo., who was recruited by the CIA to lead small reconnaissance units of South Vietnamese mercenaries, whose mission was to engage the enemy well beyond any notion of a front line.
 
Maggie O’Brien was a civilian nurse from Dorchester who answered President Kennedy’s clarion call to service by going to Afghanistan with the Peace Corps. She could have nurtured her opposition to war with a protest seat at home. Instead she chose to make a pacifist stand by serving the besieged citizenry in the South Vietnamese province of Chau Doc.

“We were all punks,” Maggie O’Brien wryly noted to a reporter almost 30 years later, “young and idealistic.”
 
The same idealism that placed O’Brien in the very heart of war as a USAID nurse also drove Dix to rescue her from a communist onslaught that would forever be known as the Tet Offensive.
 
In the course of 56 extraordinary hours, Dix and the modest commando force he led managed to extricate O’Brien and eight other USAID civilian workers in the midst of withering fire before going back to free the wife and children of a deputy province chief.
 
The details of how Dix then went on to repel a much larger enemy force, capturing 20 prisoners (including the highest ranking North Vietnamese general officer ever seized), is one of those legendary feats memorialized forever in the citation that accompanies the Medal of Honor.
 
But it’s not necessarily something Dix likes to talk about all that much.
 
“I’ve received plenty of recognition in my life, too much in fact,” Dix said with a soft chuckle yesterday, after returning from a special sail aboard the Constitution, with that select brotherhood of heroes who’ve been visiting Boston this week.

Read the whole thing and the unlikeliest of friendships between the warrior and the pacifist. Thank you for your service, both of you.

Below the fold is the Medal of Honor citation for Staff Sergeant Drew Dix, along with the website where all the citations for every medal every awarded can be found.

Read more »

A Question Of Timing, Part Two

Rick Moran is still asking questions as are a bunch of other people right now. Quite simply, what Foley did was worthy of immediate criminal investigation. If anyone sat on incriminating evidence that kept young people at risk for political purposes they are also worthy of criminal investigation.

That goes for left or right, Republican or Democrat. Let's make that quite clear.

It is quite obvious that the email exchange that kicked this ruckus off was creepy, but not criminal. The IM exchange is where it crossed the line. If the House leadership only had the emails and were asked not to follow it up by the intern's parents, it would appear they did not do anything criminal.

But if someone had those IMs and held them for political impact, they committed a crime and could be reasonably charged with accessory after the fact. And should be.

The media knew about the emails but did not have enough, absent the IMs to go to publication.

So - I want to see a full criminal investigation here of all the actors involved and I want it now. If anyone withheld the IMs hoping for political impact, I want them charged with the criminal behavior they de facto committed. I don't give a damn what party the people involved here belong to, either. If someone knowingly endangered children for political purposes, I want them charged and tried.

UPDATE: The White House wants a criminal investigation into the matter, right now.

Bringing Back The Roadshow

The current administrator of NASA, Michael Griffin, gets it. He understands the reality that PR is enormously important for building public support for NASA and the space program in general. He's had a NASA roadshow developed using a large, expandable tractor trailer. The roadshow travels around the country giving people a chance to see and here about NASA and the projects it is developing to travel back to the Moon and on to Mars.

There's nothing quite like being able to reach out and touch a piece of the Moon. Knowing that an astronaut (one of only twelve people on the whole planet Earth) had traveled a quarter million miles across the void of cislunar space, landed on a barren and dusty surface, stepped out of his cocoon of the lunar module, picked up that rock, then brought it home again, is a pretty amazing and daunting thought.

To actually touch this invaluable piece of solar system history yourself is something that is not often available. In fact, there are only three places on this planet where it is possible: The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., the Johnson Space Center in Texas, and as part of a traveling NASA space exhibit that is currently making its way cross country.

NASA's Vision for Space Exploration trailer is a beautiful piece of public relations for the future of human spaceflight. When our organization, the Orange County Space Society, does educational outreach work, we are often asked why this information is not more readily available. Many people we come in contact with are surprised at all that is currently happening in space or planned for the near future. This is the reason OCSS does what it does, to make the public aware, and we have been very successful in what we have accomplished. It is great that NASA is also out there doing this sort of work, because, as we all know, you can never have too much positive attention when it comes to the space program.

A decade or so back, I had the opportunity to talk with then-NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin. I asked him point blank why NASA was not doing more public relations work to sell NASA to the taxpaying public. His answer took me aback when he said, "NASA doesn't need PR. The success of our programs sell themselves."

As most everyone who has ever dealt with the public knows, nothing sells itself. NASA, under the new administration of Michael Griffin, innately understands this and has done something about it. In this case, that something is 72-feet long and 29-feet wide–an expandable semi-trailer has been constructed that gives the public a two-phase introduction to the future vision of human spaceflight, with a return to the Moon by 2018 and onward to Mars by about 2030.

Back when I was in elementary school, NASA had roadshows that came around and demonstrated science and talked about the space program. It spurred a lot of kids to go into the sciences. This is a great thing for public relations and a wonderful, relatively cheap way to build public enthusiasm. There is one factual error in the story, though. You can also touch a moon rock at the Kennedy Space Center Saturn V exhibit. I have done so myself.

Israel Completes Pullout

Israel forces have completely exited from Lebanon. The last forces crossed the border around 2:30 am local time. Hezbollah allies immediately surveyed the former Israeli positions. That's just great, isn't it?

Witnesses said the Israelis began moving tanks and armored carriers out of a few pockets near the border in southern Lebanon after midnight.

Israeli military officials said the last soldiers returned to Israel around 2:30 a.m., ahead of the onset of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

An armored column creaked across the border at the Israeli border community of Moshav Avivim, leaving tread marks in the soil and sending a cloud of dust into the air that was illuminated by the vehicle's headlights.

Israeli forces abandoned their hilltop position near the village of Marwaheen early Sunday. Lebanon's state-run news agency said Israeli forces also vacated nine other positions.

The pullout ended a nearly three-month troop incursion into Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah guerrillas who had fired rockets on Israel. It clears the way for the full deployment of an international peacekeeping force that will police the border with the Lebanese army.

….

Not long after the Israelis had left Marwaheen, a white U.N. armored personnel carrier with three Ghanaian soldiers on top arrived at Marwaheen from a nearby U.N. base, apparently to verify the Israeli withdrawal.

Two Lebanese plainclothes military intelligence officers then inspected the site. Another man in civilian clothing who came to look at the area said he was from Amal, the Shiite group allied with Hezbollah.

That the representatives for Hezbollah feel confident enough to show up like that does not bode well for the success of the UN peacekeepers, I suspect. Then again, I never did think it would be all that successful.

He Manages To Keep A Straight Face When He Says This

You have got to give him credit. Screamin' Howie Dean can pull off a statement like this without bursting out laughing. Great self control. When asked by AFP about Hugo Chavez's antics at the UN last week, Howie managed to get this answer out without choking:

"I think it was very unhelpful. I think Hugo Chavez is someone that is a negative force in the world," Dean told AFP when asked about Chavez's UN speech this month, in which he called Bush the "devil."

"Even though I have many disagreements with President Bush, I think it's best to discuss those disagreements respectfully rather than disrespectfully," said Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The mind boggles.

Dictator For Life

Hugo Chavez appears to be laying all the groundwork to seize lifetime political control of Venezuela. His latest is to charge that a plot to assassinate him was broken up, then to allude that his presidential election rival that had something to do with the plot.

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez, who has repeatedly spoken of various plots on his life, said Saturday a sniper with a long-range gun and a motorcycle to escape on had planned to shoot him as he exited a helicopter on a recent trip to western Venezuela.

The incident allegedly occurred when Chavez visited the western oil-producing region of Zulia in June to inaugurate a refurbished fertilizer plant. Chavez appeared to link the plot to his main rival in upcoming presidential elections, Gov. Manuel Rosales of Zulia state, claiming that he is in constant danger from opponents seeking to get rid of him.

"The plan didn't work out for them — God is always present over there. But those responsible left for Colombia, and by the way, they were from the Zulia police," he said.

He did not elaborate further on the alleged plot.

Chavez has made other claims of assassination plots in the past, including a case involving 27 Colombians and three former Venezuelan military officers who were convicted last October by a military court for allegedly plotting to kill him.

His government also demanded that Bogota investigate allegations that surfaced in an influential Colombian magazine in April saying the country's secret police plotted to assassinate Chavez and other top Venezuelan officials. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has denied the allegations.

It looks very much like he's building up a mythology that will allow him to seize full control saying it is in the best interests of "public safety".

Important Distinction

Jonathan Gurwitz has a piece in the San Antonio Express News that points out the fallacy of extending full Geneva Convention protections to illegal combatants. That actually undermines the Conventions and renders them increasingly meaningless.

That doesn't mean, however, that armed combatants captured on foreign battlefields should be Mirandized or that they are entitled to the constitutional protections of American citizens. And all the feel-good talk about America doing the right thing obscures a fundamental misinterpretation of international law that serves the interests of terrorists and their state sponsors while undermining respect for the Geneva Conventions.

Critics of Bush administration policy are adamant about extending prisoner of war rights under the Third Geneva Convention to terrorist detainees. In doing so, they obscure a clear distinction in the Geneva Conventions between lawful and unlawful combatants.

The former must be under responsible command, have identifiable uniforms, carry their arms openly and conduct their operations in accordance with the laws of war, including the requirement to limit civilian casualties. The latter are just about everyone else under arms, including members of al-Qaida and its affiliates.

The international community's enforcement of Geneva Convention standards creates an incentive for decent conduct during war. As prisoners of war, lawful combatants hold a privileged status. In matters of justice, they are entitled to a high level of procedural protection. Unlawful combatants should not receive the same protections.

Countries sign and, importantly, observe the Geneva Conventions in the hope that their men and women in uniform taken prisoner will be accorded the same privileged status they afford to prisoners of war. But extend the privileged status of lawful combatants to unlawful combatants, as the Supreme Court did in its Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld ruling, and the incentive to observe the laws of war disappears while the principle of reciprocity is rendered meaningless.

I have said for a while now that the conventions need to be revisited to take into account the changes that terrorism bring to the meaning of the accords. One thing I think is pretty clear. In 1949 there would have been pretty much universal support for summary execution of illegal combatants. The world had just gone through a major war and understood good from evil a bit better then. Things have changed as people forget.

A Question Of Timing

Read what Rick Moran has to say about the ruckus surrounding the Foley matter. Pay particular attention to the second update. Read AllahPundit as well.

Reportedly the St Pete Times had the same information in August 2005 and wrote nothing about it either, apparently because the emails do not constitute illegal conduct, they are just creepy, and the boy’s parents did not wish to pursue this.

The far more damaging IM messages were released by CREW , the same “public interest” group which is representing the Wilson/Plames in their laughable suit against Cheney, et al.

When did they get the IM’s? Why did they wait until now to release them? Is there any indication the Republicans who looked into THIS MATTER had any knowledge of their(the IM’s) existence.

Pardon an old lady’s suspicions. I’ve seen this dance too many times before.

I read this morning that a Monroe, LA newspaper also had the story and didn’t run with it because there appeared to be no impropriety.

And one more point that our dimwitted lefty friends can’t seem to wrap their miniscule brains around; the incident that was brought to the attention of the Page Board is unconnected to any of the raunchy, sick emails ABC news got from, as Clarice informs us, CREW.

This is extremely important. If the finger is being pointed at the House leadership for doing nothing, then anyone who sat on much more damning information until just before an election for political purposes is, if anything, even more guilty.

I in no way defend Foley and have already called for a criminal investigation. But since there are questions and accusations flying, it is time to take a hard look at where those accusations are coming from. If CREW had the IM transcripts for months and did nothing with them, they need to be investigated as well.

Viciousness Continues

The Washington Post continues to flog away at Senator George Allen's campaign in the Virginia Senate race. Virtually every word being written out of that race is scrutiny of one form or another of Allen, with very little being said about his challenger James Webb. Today they helpfully explain that it is all because Allen had presidential ambitions. While helpfully re-flogging every single thing that has been bombarding Allen these past few weeks.

"When people start mentioning you as a possible presidential candidate, everything is looked at," said Robert E. Denton Jr., a political communications professor at Virginia Tech and a close observer of Virginia politics. "This [scrutiny] is a whole different ballgame for Allen, and it's all about '08, not the Senate campaign."

It wasn't that many months ago that Allen was seen by political insiders as already in the top tier of prospective Republican presidential candidates. In April 2005, he finished first in a National Journal magazine survey of insiders asked to predict the 2008 GOP nominee. In May, Allen finished second behind Arizona Sen. John McCain.

But instead of laying the groundwork for a campaign in Des Moines and Charleston, S.C., Allen's renewed attention is on Winchester and Roanoke. His last trip to one of the early primary states was in July.

The tightening Senate race has even led him to showcase potential rival McCain in television ads aimed at veterans and the kinds of independent voters to whom the Arizona Republican appeals and who could be critical in Allen's race with Democrat James Webb.

Campaign manager Dick Wadhams, who was chosen to be Allen's Senate chief of staff specifically for his national political expertise, doesn't want to talk about anything but the present. "I'm concentrating on the Senate race in 2006," he said yesterday.

He said he doesn't know what role Allen's national profile has played in the campaign. "What I will say is the preponderance of scrutiny of Sen. Allen, as opposed to lack of scrutiny of Webb, suggests that one candidate is getting all the scrutiny, and the other is getting away with no scrutiny at all," Wadhams said.

He also said that Allen's leadership of Republican efforts to retain control of the Senate in 2004, when Democrats thought they had a chance for a takeover, "certainly made Sen. Allen a target."

I don't think Webb has gotten no scrutiny, I just think it has been downplayed and glossed over very, very quickly. Meanwhile, Allen has been raked over the coals relentlessly. Stories like this are really meant to keep the controversies out in front of the voters. This is, I think, the dirtiest campaign season I have ever seen. I am not at all happy with it, either. I don't imagine a lot of voters are, either.