Southern strategy

Politics junkies like me may be starting to see the initial signs that Republican party kingmakers are looking at Virginia Senator George Allen as a good candidate for President in '08.

Digby has the scoop on this guy, and it will make your blood run cold.

In Mudcat Saunders' new book about how the Democrats can win the south, he and his co-author go to great lengths to explain that politicians must have southern cultural tastes in order to win the presidency. Presumably a guy like Allen (who during his teen-age years in Southern California had a confederate flag on his mustang and wore a rebel flag pin in his graduation picture) is a man who has lived his bona fides even better than the the Yale fratboy, Junior Bush. Nobody can assail his good ole boy pretentions.
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It's hard to believe that they can't find a southern Republican who isn't a sadistic idiot to run for president, but I'm beginning to think that's the real problem. Guys like Bush and Allen are the best they can do.

Digby's post is built around quotes from a long and fascinating article about Allen from The New Republic. Mark A R Kleiman also comments and links thoughtfully with respect to that same TNR. I highly recommend all of these resources—but only if you're a junkie like me.