Allen Tries to Shake Off the 'Macaca' Shadow

George Allen in his Alexandria office. (Bill O'Leary - Washington Post)

The aim of the nonprofit, nonpartisan group is to promote a conservative vision for the country's energy future, Allen says. It is devoted to the development of "clean coal" and safer nuclear technology and "playing tenacious defense against horrendous ideas," including cap-and-trade, which would require businesses to limit their greenhouse gas emissions or otherwise mitigate the impact on the environment. He argues that it would put the United States at a competitive disadvantage against India, China and other developing countries that have rejected such restrictions. Critics of the group have characterized its views as extreme and out of the mainstream.

Allen said he has spent "not a scintilla of time" pondering whether to run for the Senate again. But he is campaigning regularly on behalf of McDonnell, who as state attorney general was among the first to issue a statement supportive of Allen after his 2006 defeat.

A spokesman for McDonnell described Allen as a personal friend who plays an "informal" role in the campaign. On a recent afternoon, at McDonnell's request, Allen spoke with a group of undecided Northern Virginia businessmen at a Tysons Corner hotel to try to persuade them to support the former attorney general. Allen's wife, Susan, has appeared at GOP events this year and is a member of "Women for McDonnell."

Friends and supporters say Allen still enjoys a deep well of support in the community, particularly among Republicans. As the GOP tries to recover from recent defeats in Virginia and beyond, many think fondly of his come-from-behind gubernatorial victory in 1993, when a Democrat occupied the White House and after three successive Democratic governors.

"At the end of the day, Virginians love men of action," said Alexandra Liddy Bourne, who served in Allen's administration and is executive director of his think tank. "His mistakes are forgiven. We are way past them. We have saddled up, and we're going forward."

For some, though, he will be forever tainted. In April, at an annual fish fry in southeastern Virginia that typically draws the state's political elite, someone had put up a "George Allen 2012" sign. The idea struck Annabel Park, founder of a group called "Real Virginians for Webb" during the 2006 campaign, as so absurd that she snapped a picture.

Then Park met Allen. To her surprise, she found him "warm, friendly and engaging," she said. "I was like, 'Oh, wow, he has something.' My opinion of George Allen changed a lot at that moment."

Still, she believes that his missteps unmasked the racist strains that still run deep in American society. It would take a bold statement against those forces for Allen to recover his image, she said, and "I don't think he has the strength of character."