George Allen - Very Bad Things

It looks as though George Allen, incumbent Republican Senator from Virginia, is trying to self destruct.

Not only is Allen now holding "ethnic rallies" (although I will give Allen credit for nixing the original rally title "the darkies like me") to try to wash his hands of a questionably racist past, but now he is plagiarizing fellow senators amendments.

On the senate floor, Allen blazingly proposed an amendment that he stole from Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill). Dick Durbin distributed an amendment on the house floor that he planned to introduce later that day. Allen, asked for some time to speak prior to Durbin's allotted time. Allen basically crossed Durbin's name off the top of the bill and wrote his own name in.

It was not like Allen proposed a substantially similar bill... Noooo... except for changing one word ('Will' to 'Shall'), it was the exact same bill.

At 2:30 PM this afternoon the U.S. Senate began debate of the Department of Defense appropriations for FY 2007.

Already on the docket was Senator Dick Durbin, who was scheduled to introduce an amendment to the bill providing $19 million in additional funding for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center program, which provides treatment care and research for veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries.

That meant that Durbin’s amendment had already been written, printed and prepared for introduction by Durbin. Yet, before Durbin could take the floor to introduce his amendment, George Allen entered the Senate Chamber and asked for permission to speak before Durbin.

When permission was granted ahead of Durbin, lo and behold, Allen introduced an amendment to the DOD appropriations bill that, how could this be, was identical in language to Durbin’s bill with the exception of one word – the word “will” was changed in Allen’s amendment and replaced with the word “shall.” Other than that, the amendments were identical – Durbin’s amendment had been printed and set to be formally introduced, Allen’s bill had not been written or been placed on the docket to be introduced. - James Webb for Senate

You know your campeign is hitting the skids when you start trying to win political points by stealing amendments. Allen's presidential aspirations are completely over now. I am starting to wonder if he can even pull out a re-election to the Senate.