Allen's Advisers Try Mute-Button Strategy

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 12, 2006

RICHMOND -- Weeks after George Allen 's mouth got him into serious trouble, the senator's advisers have apparently decided that he should shut up.

At least when it comes to talking directly to the media, that is.

With less than a month before Election Day, Allen (R-Va.) has become virtually impossible to interview directly, giving his campaign handlers much more control over the message they send to voters. What voters see this month will be -- they hope -- only what they want voters to see.

The idea, apparently, is to avoid any further gaffes. In August, he called an Indian American worker for his challenger "macaca," a slur. Last month, in the middle of a story about his recently discovered Jewish roots, he told a reporter that his mother still "made great pork chops."

Now, though, he has turned to some of his longtime advisers, who have concluded that if Allen simply doesn't talk to the media, he can't make any more of those mistakes.

A dramatic example of this came Monday night, at the last of four scheduled debates between Allen and challenger James Webb .

During the televised event, Allen presented himself as eager to answer questions, showing his skill as a debater by parrying queries from the panel, the moderator and even from his Democratic challenger with well-scripted answers designed to fit within a one-minute or 30-second window.

But as soon as the klieg lights went off, Allen was quickly led away by aides, through the gathering crowd of reporters, into the adjoining makeup room at the TV studio and out of reach. News cameras and print reporters raced after him, to no avail.

His opponent, Democrat James Webb, had an impromptu news conference with reporters in the studio.

There are other examples of Allen's campaign attempting to control access to the candidate.

The campaign has begun using a conference-calling system to conduct telephone-based news conferences, which are common in the last month of many campaigns.

The new system requires reporters to listen to Allen's comments without interruption and then push "*1" when they want to ask a question. Their names will pop up on a staffer's computer screen in chronological order. The campaign staff then decides which reporters will be allowed to ask a question.

The Allen campaign used the technique last week, when staffers hastily called a news conference with Allen and Republican Sen. John W. Warner to respond to an earlier Webb news conference about the failures of the Iraq war.

The result: Allen was asked a handful of questions, and reporters were not permitted to ask follow-up questions. The phones of reporters who the campaign believed would ask tough questions were simply kept on mute the entire time.

In addition, the campaign has become even more cryptic when it comes to Allen's public schedule. Reporters know every appearance that is planned for his wife, Susan, but often are kept in the dark about the senator's schedule.

In Allen's defense, he still occasionally stops and answers a question or two while campaigning. And there have been some bizarre questions asked of him.

Peggy Fox , a television reporter and panelist for the debate sponsored by Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, asked him about his mother's Jewish heritage, prompting a week-long news story. It should not seem startling that any candidate would want to avoid surprise questions.

But that's what politicians do when they get elected: deal with the questions that come their way. Allen, in fact, has been one of the more open senators at the Capitol, often stopping to answer questions while his colleagues go to great lengths to avoid the press corps.

Now, though, it seems that Allen has decided that a Rose Garden strategy -- in which he hunkers down and avoids tough questions for the rest of the race -- may be the only way to ensure that he returns to Capitol Hill.

It may work. And the media's griping about it certainly won't elicit sympathy from the public, which tends to dislike reporters about as much it does tax collectors.

But the real victim could be voters, who will have to make up their minds about whom to vote for on Nov. 7 based almost exclusively on prepackaged, scripted comments from Allen.

That's a shame.