Political survivor

Politics: George Allen had a rocky road to the Senate; now a suddenly difficult reelection race could stand in the way of an expected presidential bid | Joel Belz

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When George F. Allen ambled off the floor of the U.S. Senate a couple of Friday mornings ago, just after delivering a vigorous 38-minute speech on energy policy, there was hardly a hint of pressure or tension.

Oh, maybe the toothpick he popped into his mouth suggested he had some issues in the back of his mind as he took the elevator down to the Senate subway. He joked with a staffer about having slightly stumbled over just one line in the speech, and you could infer he was looking for a little affirmation. "No, it was very good," the staffer responded obligingly as they stood waiting for the subway train that shuttles between the Capitol and the Hart Senate office building.

Nor did the junior senator from Virginia seem at all uptight half an hour later when he took on journalists from throughout his state on a conference phone call from his office. Leaning far back in his swivel chair, he swung his trademark cowboy boots up on the corner of his desk and spent the next 35 minutes—virtually noteless—walking reporters through the silliness of boutique gasoline blends, the advantages of soybeans over corn as a source for biofuels, and the seriousness of a threat to the United States from what he calls a "radical Islam caliphate that could stretch from Indonesia to Spain." Not everyone, even in sophisticated Washington, knows what a "caliphate" is; George Allen does.