This says it all:

This year, Webb beat Allen by 116,000 votes and 17 points in the region. About half of that margin came from Fairfax County, the state’s biggest place and an important symbol of the change in the state’s politics.

“Fairfax used to be the bellwether for the state,” Brodnitz said. “Now it’s considered a critical piece of the Democratic map.”

And should the exurbs around Fairfax go decisively for the Democrats in future elections (Webb carried Loudoun 50-49 and Prince William 51-48), the GOP will become less and less competitive. Now is the time for rainbow conservatism and stem the Democratic tide in the exurbs that are growing in money and votes.

Sen. Allen conceded the race to Webb. We can say a lot of things about Allen, that perhaps he has a mean streak or that maybe he harbors racist feelings or that he ran a very poor campaign. But he had the class to concede gracefully:

“I do not wish to cause more litigation that would not alter the results,” Allen said, adding that he saw “no good purpose being served by continuously and needlessly expending money and causing any more personal animosity.”

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer demanded yesterday that Republicans show decency by conceding gracefully without resorting to legal battles and recount after recount in razor-thin races. Even setting aside the 2000 Florida recount mess (where Gore retracted his concession), does Christine Gregoire ring a bell?

I remember that election. I lived in Seattle, Washington, where the Democrats, after losing two counts, engaged in a selective manual recount in Democrat-dominated King County only and “won” the third recount.

There is a word for Schumer’s demand — hypocrisy. Welcome to the Democrat-contolled Congress.

It turns out, I was optimistic yesterday in my prognostication, but only by a little. It looks likely Sen. Allen will lose to Jim Webb, and Sen. Burns of Montana will lose to Tester. Thus the Democrats will also take control of the Senate in addition to the House.

Clearly, the election was not a victory for leftism in the United States. That leaves two explanations for the result, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive. One theory holds that the GOP went too polar to the right and conceded the center (h/t RCP):

“The story line really is that the Democrats are winning the middle,” said Democratic pollster Al Quinlan.

Veteran GOP pollster Bill McInturff said: “Iraq is front and center of this election, and people voted for change. The GOP base held — was motivated and voted — but the margins among independents and moderates [for Democrats] was too much to overcome.”

The other theory is that Republicans were not conservative enough and became like Democrats, a party of establishment power, big government and etc. (h/t RCP):

In assessing last night’s results it is important to note that it was not a defeat for conservatism; it was a defeat for Republicanism, or at least, what Republicanism has come to represent. In the past 12 years, Republicans went from the party that promised “the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public’s money” to the party of the Bridge to Nowhere; it took control of Congress on a pledge to “end its cycle of scandal and disgrace” and went down in defeat as the party of Tom DeLay and Mark Foley.

Having abandoned its core principles, the Republican Party had nothing to run on this year, so its campaign strategy centered on attacking Nancy Pelosi — a questionable tactic given that, according to some polls, more than half of the country had never even heard of her.

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Conservatives are supposedly returning home to the GOP, kicking, screaming and whining. Paul Weyrich captures it best:

“It’ll all come down to conservatives,” he said. “For a long time, I’ve heard nothing but ‘I’m not going to vote for these jerks.’ Now I’m hearing ‘Well, I suppose we’ll have to vote the jerks back in and see what we can do.’ “

I share the sentiment. I have always recognized that politics is frequently about the lesser of two evils. Still, “vote for us, because we are not quite as bad as our opponents” is not exactly inspiring.

Of course, experts say people are several times more motivated by fear than by prospect of gain, so maybe there is something to that strategy. Perhaps that explains why the Democrats have been critizing the Bush administration without offering any concrete, workable alternatives of their own on Iraq.

One view of the Allen-Webb contest has it that perceived racial or sexual insensitivities won’t matter, but Bush’s standing in Virginia and the Allen-Webb fundraising gap will (h/t RCP):

Far more telling in the end, I’d wager, will be two other factors: President Bush’s popularity on Election Day and whether or not Allen maintains his current, enormous fundraising advantage over challenger Jim Webb. That’s where the numbers come in.

If Bush’s popularity and that of the war in Iraq are tanking on Nov. 7, then the combination offers Webb, a former Navy secretary and highly decorated Marine, his best - perhaps only - hope of an upset victory. [Snip]

Webb’s prospects shrink dramatically if Allen maintains anything close to his summer fundraising advantage. At the last accounting a couple of months back, Allen had $6 million in the bank, compared to Webb’s $424,000.

While I agree that these two factors matter a great deal, I disagree that these are the two most important factors in the contest.

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Readers’ attention is invited to Scott Johnson’s analysis today of Larry Sabato’s charges against senator George Allen.

Johnson yesterday had raised questions about Sabato’s statements.

Powerlineblog, written by three lawyers, ranks among the very best of conservative blogs.

One hopes that Allen can move promptly to get the public’s focus back on national policy issues and the record of his opponent. Continually responding to ad hominem attacks of this nature becomes a mug’s game for the Senator. It is long since time for a scrutiny of Jim Webb’s public record and his views over the years.

(***Scroll down to an important Loudoun County meeting on the “Hallowed Ground” scheme next Tuesday.)

The “culture of governmentalism” can beguile even long-time Republican House and Senate incumbents, and certainly their unwary staffs.

Such appears to be the case with H.R. 5195, “Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area Act of 2006,” whose principal House sponsor is Frank Wolf of Virginia, and its Senate counterpart, S.2645, sponsored by George Allen.

In prepared testimony this morning before a House of Representatives panel, Peyton Knight of the National Center for Public Policy Research declares:

“Worse than run-of-the-mill pork, which wastes federal tax dollars, this legislation would actually purchase preservationist special interest groups, many of which have histories of anti-property rights activism, and encourage them to urge State and local lawmakers to restrict land use, modify zoning and even acquire private property or interests in private property.” [Emphasis added.]

Knight, the director of environmental and regulatory affairs at the National Center, explains:

“Specifically, H.R. 5195 would create a 175-mile long federal corridor, the boundaries of which encompass portions of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. It would assign a ‘management entity’ consisting of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground (JTHG) Partnership (an umbrella group of preservation activists and lobbyists who stand to directly benefit from the bill’s passage) and the Interior Department to oversee development and land use in the area.”

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I must confess I don’t understand the hooplah about whether Senator George Allen is Jewish or not. According to Washington Jewish Week:

In addition to having a Jewish mother or father, “personal observance” of Judaism is a factor, and one must identify with the religion.

Since George Allen was raised a Christian and did not observe Judaism, she said he would not be considered Jewish.

Who cares? What’s the difference? Faith is a profoundly private matter. We live, after all, in the land of religious freedom. I just can’t see how the Jewish heritage or lack thereof is a really a “gotcha” moment against Allen.

Indeed, I am of the view that identity in America is mostly self-constructed. Senator Allen decided to be a conservative, Christian American. Then that is what he is, regardless of who his maternal grandfather was. That’s the kind of country in which we live, where the past does not dictate the present or the future.

I wrote of this from a personal experience of being a naturalized American of Asian descent and origin a while back in the Seattle Times. I reproduce it below:

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“Women can’t fight” vs. “Macaca,” courtesy of RCP Blog.

Or is it cowboy boots vs. combat boots? This much the NY Times is right about:

Some Republicans worry that the growth of Northern Virginia, with its increasingly urban voters and what some pollsters say is discontent with the status quo in Washington, poses a real challenge to their party. Mr. Webb’s allies, for their part, worry he will not have enough money to hold his own against Mr. Allen on television. 

 

The anxieties on both sides point to a central truth: Virginia, at the moment, is a very competitive race.