Virginia Sen. Battles For Political Life

(CBS/AP)  Sen. George Allen's political career hung by a thread Wednesday, after Democrat Jim Webb claimed victory — though about 8,000 votes separated the two and a recount was virtually certain.

"The votes are in and we won," Webb said. However, votes were still being counted. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Webb had 1,170,766 votes, or 49.6 percent, to Allen's 1,162,719, or 49.3 percent.

There are still absentees out that must be counted, reports Kathy Frankovic, CBS News Director of Surveys. A recount can be requested if the difference between the candidate is less than 1 percent.

A recount could not begin until after the State Board of Elections certifies the results Nov. 27; the losing candidate has 10 days after that to request a recount.

Republicans and Democrats both dispatched lawyers to Virginia to tally uncounted absentee ballots Wednesday, as well as canvass votes counted on Election Day.

A former governor once popular for abolishing parole, Allen had once been expected to cruise to a second term this year as a warmup for a presumed 2008 presidential run.

His solid conservative credentials and his sunny persona invited comparisons with the archetypal Republican, Ronald Reagan. In late July, Allen led Webb by 16 points in the year's first independent statewide poll.

Then came Aug. 11, the day Allen pointed out S.R. Sidarth, a 20-year-old Virginia-born man of Indian descent working as a Webb campaign volunteer, and introduced him at an all-white rally as "macaca," an obscure racial slur that denotes a genus of monkeys.

Sidarth was tracking Allen across the state, videotaping his public appearances, and his video of Allen's macaca moment became a major national story and was grist for comedians and cable talk shows.

Allen eventually apologized to Sidarth, but not until the comment had already provoked widespread scorn. By then, the political damage was done, and more was to come.

In mid-September, Allen bristled at a reporter for "making aspersions" about his religion when he was asked at a debate whether his mother was Jewish. The next day, Allen, 54, who was raised Christian, confirmed that his maternal grandparents were Jews, but said his mother revealed the secret to him only in August.

Then came allegations from some former football teammates from the University of Virginia that Allen had commonly used a six-letter epithet against black people. Allen denied ever using the word, and other teammates came forward to rebut the claims.

As Webb tied Allen to President Bush and the deadly U.S. occupation of Iraq, Allen battled back. He accused Webb of denigrating women in a 1979 magazine article decrying admission of women to the Naval Academy. Allen later tried to portray sexual descriptions in Webb's six best-selling war novels as demeaning to women.

Webb, a Naval Academy graduate and decorated Vietnam veteran who served as Navy secretary under Reagan, bitterly opposed the war in Iraq and switched to the Democratic Party.

There are no automatic recounts in Virginia, but state law allows a candidate who finishes within a half-percentage point to request a recount paid for by state and local governments.

[olebd]

Please George, just give in and let's get on with it. This thang is as gridlocked as a Northern Virginia highway.

[energyecon]

And repeat after me: Senator Webb! OOOH-RAH!

[energyecon]

IF - the biggest two letter word in the English language!

ATTENTION: THE VOTES HAVE BEEN COUNTED - THEY ARE BEING CANVASSED - THIS IS A THOROUGH ERROR CHECK ON THE COUNTING PROCESS!

So IF you read that closely you will understand that the votes have been counted. If you want George Allen to be crybaby damaged goods forever, then by all means recount away! A margin of this magnitude, while a minute percentage, is simply not going to flip - period.

[pakaal]

Recount 'em. Recount 'em all. If (or in my opinion when) Webb wins in the recount it'll be a victory that no one can argue. Otherwise we'll have Republicans in the position Democrats have been in the last two cycles, wondering if the elections were unfair and if they were cheated out of a victory.

[energyecon]

Any recount that is an obvious exercise in futility will only make Allen a loser - AGAIN!

If he wants to have a prayer of preserving any future ambitions for political office, once the vote canvass shows something like the current margin his best move is a gracious and sportsmanlike concession speech (which I have to admit Rick Santorum made in PA - not a fan but he was standup about that).

That said, given the way Allen has conducted himself I fully expect a futile recount to be demanded and Allen saddle himself with the "sore loser" title.

[newsjeff-2009]

I do not live in Virginia, but I believe that after the votes are counted or re-counted today, whoever looses the senate race needs to act sportmans like and accept the lose and move on. The future of this country is too important to debate the outcome of a senate election for days, us voters should not have to wait until November 27th to find out what party controls the senate. If senator Allen looses by a small margin of 1,000 or even 100 votes it is still a GOP republican loose, that is the same attitude Republicans tossed to Al Gore when he lost Florida by a small margin.