ALLEN USES MCCAIN TO BOOST REELECTION BID WHILE REFUSING TO WORK WITH HIM TO AVOID SEQUESTRATION
RICHMOND --There is one word to describe George Allen campaigning with Senator John McCain today while admitting to Virginians that he couldn't work with fellow Republicans to avoid sequestration cuts: Cynical.
As the Virginian Pilot reported today, "McCain has left the door open for some form of increased revenue. He noted today that he was one of a bipartisan group of six senators who recently sent a letter to Obama offering to negotiate a new budget deal with no preconditions. 'We are willing to put everything on the table,' he said."
Even as he stood next to a Senator who agreed to put country ahead of harsh ideology, George Allen today reiterated his hard-line preconditions of no new revenue and let Virginians know that he can't even work with those in his own party to avert these dramatic cuts to defense and other priorities. "Allen has flatly ruled out any tax increases, which he says would threaten the nation's economic recovery," reported the Pilot.
So George Allen will campaign with Senator McCain for his own political gain but won't agree to work with him on the most pressing issue for Virginia?
This shouldn't surprise anyone who is familiar with former Senator George Allen's record of putting partisanship over progress, and his own political career before compromise.
Virginians knew when the day started that George Allen had no plan to avoid sequestration and they knew he had a 'my way or the highway' approach that would prevent compromise with Democrats. But an inability to even work with leaders in his own party, even as he uses them to boost his reelection campaign, is truly cynical.
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