George Allen, New Oil Lobbyist, Says Obama Fumbled BP Spill

The BP oil spill may be more devastating than George Allen ever imagined possible, but the former governor and senator-turned-oil lobbyist says his faith in offshore drilling—including for his own state of Virginia—is unshaken.

“My views for Virginia, and ultimately the country, are that of course we need to explore for gas and oil off our coasts,” Allen said in an interview with The Daily Beast. “The BP disaster is one that gives everyone concern, and there are some against offshore exploration who will use this as an excuse to shut down all offshore exploration, even in states that wish to do so. That would be a shortsighted approach.”

“As far as prevention of the spread of the oil, that’s where I think the president from Day 1 should have said, ‘Look, we’re going to ask everyone who has a boat on the Gulf Coast—we need you to help skim this.’”

Since losing his seat to Jim Webb in 2006, derailing a promising political career and potential White House run, Allen has become chairman of American Energy Freedom Center, an advocacy group dedicated to expanding domestic coal, oil, and nuclear production while fending off climate-change legislation to reduce carbon emissions, the science behind which he says is, “to be charitable about it, debatable.” The group is an independent non-profit, but operated until the end of last year as a subsidiary of the Institute for Energy Research, a group led by former Enron executive Robert Bradley Jr. that’s taken in $307,000 in funding from ExxonMobil since 1998, according to records compiled by Greenpeace.

Allen described the BP leak as “unprecedented” and said its effects were far worse than he previously imagined possible from an offshore spill.

“It’s a surprise and also a disappointment,” he said. “It shows we need to continue to improve.”

According to Allen, the White House fumbled its handling of the disaster by not responding quickly enough with more ships to aid BP’s operations and by not burning enough of the oil off the surface of the water soon enough. Experts have been split on the effectiveness of the method, which has been employed at times since the spill began.

“My view is they were slow on the draw,” Allen said. “[Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal] was on it right off the bat, but federal agencies and the press were very slow to react. Only when public-opinion polls went down did they become more active in addressing this situation.”

He suggested that the government should have organized a fleet of volunteers in a Dunkirk-like brigade to provide additional help early on:

“As far as prevention of the spread of the oil, that’s where I think the president from Day 1 should have said, ‘Look, we’re going to ask everyone who has a boat on the Gulf Coast—we need you to help skim this.’”

As for whether the Minerals Management Service, the agency tasked with regulating drilling and criticized by watchdog organizations as corrupt even before the oil spill, needed an overhaul, Allen was slower to assign blame. BP has also come under intense criticism and some, including Obama’s assistant on energy and climate change, Carol Browner, have suggested that the company’s early estimates of the extent of the oil spill may have been deliberately lower to limit potential fines. Allen, however, said he believed the mistake was an honest one.

“One thing they thrive on in Washington is scapegoating,” he said. “I don’t think at this point one can come to the conclusion that this was MMS’ fault versus BP’s fault. Clearly in the future the key will be reasonable and practical ways of preventing this from happening ever again.”

Allen has been back in the spotlight in recent weeks promoting his new book, What Washington Can Learn From the World of Sports, which draws on his experience as a football player and son of legendary Washington Redskins Coach George H. Allen.

In addition to offering a number of sports metaphors to explain conservative philosophy, Allen tackles the issue that ultimately ruined his reelection chances: race. In 2006, his lead in the polls evaporated after he referred to an opponent’s volunteer as “macaca” at a rally and welcomed the Indian American to “America and the real world of Virginia.” The situation was inflamed by further reports detailing Allen’s interest in the Confederate flag—he at one point hung one in his living room and wore a pin depicting the flag in his high school graduation photo, despite growing up in California and Chicago. Allen told reporters then that he went through a rebellious phase as a young man and that the flag in his home was part of a broader flag collection, but the political damage proved too much to overcome.

In his book, Allen writes that his “macaca” moment was “poor judgment” and that the phrase, which is regarded as a racial slur, was to him a “nonsense word,” the connotations of which he was unaware of at the time. Shades of the media frenzy surrounding Allen’s remarks could be seen in the recent Kentucky dustup over Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul’s contention that the Civil Rights Act violates libertarian principles, which Paul eventually retracted.

“My view as far as the Civil Rights Act is concerned, obviously, I am for it,” Allen said when asked about Paul’s troubles. The former senator devotes much of his book’s first chapter to praising integration in sports, which he says cleared the way for broader political progress and eventually President Obama’s election. He said he had not seen Paul’s comments on the issue but that the political neophyte should have been prepared for tough questions on the liberal-leaning Rachel Maddow Show, where he discussed the Civil Rights Act at length.

“When you have the ball and when you’re running for office you can expect your opposition to use everything they can to discredit you and not talk about ideas and issues and proposals and solutions that would be relevant for moving forward with our country,” he said.

As governor, Allen faced significant criticism, which he describes in his book, for signing a series of annual proclamations commemorating “Confederate History and Heritage Month” that described the Civil War as a “four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights” and failed to mention slavery. Allen apologized to anyone who was offended at the time but accused his political opponents of exploiting the issue and declined to call the decision a mistake. Recently, another Confederate History resolution in Virginia failed to mention slavery, leading Gov. Bob McDonnell to apologize for the omission, a decision Allen praised. Asked whether, knowing what he knows now about the issue, he would have handled the issue differently during his own tenure, Allen said that the resolution “could have been worded better, I suppose.”

“Clearly slavery was a factor in the war,” he added.

The Senate GOP has seen significant upheaval since Allen’s departure, with incumbent Bob Bennett failing to be renominated by his own party and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell at times at odds with Tea Party favorite Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina over which candidates the party should back. Asked about the divide, Allen stayed diplomatic.

“The debate is healthy,” he said. “I like Jim DeMint a great deal, I like Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and I think he’s done an outstanding job with the numbers he’s had.”

Looking ahead to 2012, Allen pointed to Sen. John Thune (R-SD) as “one to look at” and said that most of the next generation of Republican leaders would likely emerge from its pool of governors. He singled out Jindal for praise for his handling of the BP spill and said Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ ideas efforts to expand health savings accounts should be a model for other states. Some observers have suggested Allen might run for Senate again in 2012, and Allen writes in his book that “perhaps” he’d be up for a rematch.

Republicans, he said, need to focus their efforts on cutting the nation’s deficit, which he said could be achieved with a balanced budget amendment. Allen declined to offer specific examples of how programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which together make up about 40 percent of the 2010 federal budget, might be affected by such a move in the absence of tax increases, turning the topic instead to non-defense discretionary spending, which makes up about 15 percent of the budget and earmarks, which comprise less than 1 percent of the budget. Defense spending, which makes up another 18.7 percent of the budget, would likely not face cuts in such a scenario, he said. Allen acknowledged that “tough decisions” would need to be made to close the gap.

“Yes, it would be drastic,” he said. “However, it is not sustainable to continue at the rates we’re spending.”

Editor's Note: A previous version of this article described the American Energy Freedom Center as a current subsidiary of the Institute for Energy Research and mischaracterized its operations. According to a spokesman for the Institute for Energy Research, the AEFC became an independent 501c at the end of last year and is no longer affiliated with the organization.

Benjamin Sarlin is Washington correspondent for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.