Reply #19: He is. No doubt.

[whometense]

I always thought of him as stupid, but I had no idea until I read this stuff yesterday how truly awful a person he is.

And there's more: The September American Prospect is featuring an article on his corporate connections that is none too flattering either: http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=11861

Even before leaving the governor’s mansion, Allen made his ambitions to run for the United States Senate in 2000 plain. By spring of 1998, he was waxing enthusiastic about the prospect of seeking a Senate seat: The Senate, he told The Washington Post, is “the best board of directors in the world.”

And on August 11, 1998, he joined a real board of directors -- Xybernaut’s -- where he would serve until December 2000. Upon his nomination, he extolled the firm’s potential, crowing: “This is not science fiction -- the future is here now!”

But today, as Allen runs for re-election to “the best board of directors in the world” and mulls a candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 with the encouragement of conservative insiders, who see him as the affable heir to George W. Bush, troubling questions have emerged about his tenure on the Xybernaut board -- which didn’t turn out to be one of the best.

Little remains of the company except a pile of legal cases, federal investigations, and the faint imprints of furniture and footprints on the worn expanse of dark blue carpet at its longtime Fairfax offices, which have sat empty since early this year. (The remnants of the company, which employed more than 140 people at its peak but just 15 as of its last SEC filing, have moved to Chantilly, Virginia.)

Xybernaut filed for bankruptcy reorganization in July 2005, three months after an announcement by an audit committee of its board that an internal investigation -- established that February at the urging of a whistle-blowing company insider -- found that the firm’s chief executive officer and board chairman, former CIA agent Edward Newman, and his brother, president and chief operating officer Steven Newman, had “improperly used substantial company funds for personal expenses,” engaged in major unreported transactions, and hired family members whose roles with the company were not properly disclosed, in violation of its bylaws. Edward Newman’s attorney declined comment for this story, but Steven Newman predicted vindication in 2005 press reports. Unable to stand by its books in the wake of the audit committee’s revelations, Xybernaut in 2005 had to warn shareholders that its financial statements and disclosures dating to 2002 were unreliable...

I'm often struck by what you mentioned - the bully factor and the right wing. Not to be overly freudian, but I honestly think it's related to: