Thursday, December 08, 2011
Tim Kaine, George Allen face off in first debate of 2012 Senate race
Two ex-governors attack each other's time on the national stage.
Photos by Associated Press
Republican George Allen: "Spending is a problem in Washington, but you've been advocating for this spending that is far more than what the rates were ever before."
Democrat Tim Kaine: "There's a name-calling and division and bullying aspect to this which is in very long supply right now in Washington."
Related
The latest from our Blue Ridge Caucus politics blog
From The Roanoke Times
RICHMOND — Republican George Allen and Democrat Tim Kaine, former Virginia governors who later delved into national politics, offered a brisk, no-holds-barred glimpse of next year's likely general election campaign for U.S. Senate during a debate at the state Capitol on Wednesday.
While two dozen tea party members stood outside and protested the exclusion of other candidates, Allen and Kaine each tried to pin the blame for the country's slumping economy on each other.
Allen aimed punches at Kaine for supporting President Barack Obama's unpopular economic stimulus and health care overhaul bills while serving a term as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, which Allen called "the most political, partisan job in America."
"On every significant issue, Tim has sided with President Obama rather than the people of Virginia," Allen said. "He's for imposing huge tax increases in the midst of a recession, something he did, repeatedly tried to do, as governor. He's for massive stimulus spending he said would jump-start the economy that has only left us deeper in debt and without the jobs promised. He's for government mandates on health care, job-killing regulations on energy that really hurt families, seniors and small businesses."
Kaine counterattacked by pointing to Allen's term as U.S. senator from 2001 to 2007. He said Allen was part of a Congress that passed tax cuts for the wealthy, approved two wars without financing them and expanded entitlements.
"One idea after the next has proved that when it comes to issues of fiscal responsibility, George is a guy who says one thing and does the opposite," Kaine said.
Although Allen has apologized, both in person and in a book, his reference to a Jim Webb campaign tracker of Indian descent as "macaca" during an event in Southwest Virginia in 2006 doesn't look like it will go away during this campaign, either. In response to a question, Kaine said he gives Allen credit for the apology but called it part of a pattern that resembles the divisive politics in Congress.
"There's a name-calling and division and bullying aspect to this which is in very long supply right now in Washington," Kaine said. "It's not who Virginia is."
Allen, meanwhile, repeatedly worked to nationalize the debate by tying Kaine to Obama and the policies of national Democrats. He drew distinctions on issues by calling for the repeal of the health care overhaul law and passage of constitutional amendments requiring a balanced federal budget and granting "personhood" status to fertilized eggs from the time of conception.
Kaine said he'd work to improve the health care overhaul but would oppose its repeal. He said he supported a balanced budget but opposed a constitutional amendment to require it.
In follow-up questioning over the personhood amendment, Allen didn't seem to understand how birth control pills work, that they can stop a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. Kaine responded with a detailed explanation of how modern birth control pills function, and he said he'd oppose the personhood measure because it would effectively outlaw birth control pills.
Allen criticized Kaine for repeated efforts to raise taxes during his term as governor and for consenting to a deal to transfer Jens Soering to his home country of Germany. Soering, convicted of the 1985 murders of two Bedford County residents, could have been considered for release in two years after his return to Germany.
Virginia political analyst Bob Holsworth, who predicted "an enormously hard-fought, almost brutal campaign" between Kaine and Allen, noted that Southwest Virginia played a prominent role in the debate. Kaine took credit for permitting a new coal-fired power plant in Wise County, while Allen suggested Kaine, while serving as DNC chairman, had turned his back on the region by endorsing the failed "cap and trade" energy policy that would have raised coal prices.
Outside the Capitol, representatives of various tea party organizations protested the exclusion of other candidates from the debate. Several other Republicans vying for the party's nomination were not invited because they did not meet a requirement to receive at least 15 percent support in a published poll or raise at least 20 percent as much money as the front-runner.
Jamie Radtke, a favorite of the tea party groups, appeared at the protest but said she was returning to her campaign office to watch the debate broadcast. She and other Republican candidates will appear in a series of debates sponsored by the Republican Party of Virginia next spring, including one in Roanoke.
