NEWS ANALYSIS : In Retrospect, Allen Era Was Doomed From Day 1 : Leadership: GOP rage over deal with Democrats never subsided. Her supporters say she didn’t get a fair chance.

Right from the beginning, it seemed likely that Doris Allen’s tenure as House Speaker might not last too long.

Winning the speakership June 5 without the help of even one of her 38 Republican colleagues would make her job tough enough. Whatever his faults, outgoing Speaker Willie Brown, at least, had charisma and contacts and an unparalleled understanding of Sacramento’s political game. But Allen, a relatively obscure politician, had a limited record of accomplishment as she took over for him.

Claiming she had betrayed them, her foes launched a recall just days after she ascended to the Assembly’s top post.

“Her speakership was singularly insignificant,” said Orange County GOP Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes, who supports the recall. “She was enormously unprepared for the role, and she was driven by all the wrong instincts and motivations. She demonstrated a level of incompetence equaled by few.”

Finally, as the pressure escalated this week, Allen, striking back at foes running the recall, described Republican Party leaders as “a group of power-mongering men with short penises.”

With the remark, Allen had gone too far, and within 48 hours she stepped down as Speaker, reversing a promise she had made last week. Her close ally, Brian Setencich (R-Fresno), was named her replacement.

“I think that she has made some horrible political decisions, and the fact that she has to talk about people’s body parts suggests that she is erratic in her thinking process,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), one of the leaders of the recall effort.

But Allen’s allies said she was never given a fair chance to prove what she could do, partially because she is a woman, but mostly because her Republican colleagues were so incensed at her alliance of convenience with the Democrats.

“They never got over the fact that someone who they did not pick accomplished what they couldn’t do: put a Republican in the Speaker’s chair for the first time in 25 years,” said Richard Katz, (D-Sylmar), one of Allen’s strongest supporters.

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Her backers credited Allen with an unprecedented achievement.

“Doris Allen will go down in history as the first woman to be the Speaker of the Assembly. She had a lot of guts to do what others in their caucus were reluctant to do but wanted very much to do,” said Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-Burlingame). “The glass ceiling has been shattered. There will be another woman, hopefully sooner than later, who will be Speaker of this body and will have the opportunity to really exemplify the leadership that women bring to this institution.”

Assembly Democrats stood by Allen, sometimes gritting their teeth but always supplying the necessary votes to preserve her tenuous reign. Allen also got high marks in some corners for being independent. Even in her resignation as Speaker on Thursday, she managed to hand a victory to her strongest supporter--Setencich.

In taking the speakership, Allen told the Assembly on Thursday, “I did so in the sincere belief I could bring peace to our house and guide the Assembly through difficult times.

“Unfortunately, there are members of the Assembly Republican Caucus who are more bent on revenge than on developing and implementing good public policy.”

In the end, however, with news that she was facing a recall election in her northern Orange County district, Allen said she “had a choice to make--to represent the constituents who elected me . . . or give into the fringe element of my party and accept defeat,” she said. “I cannot do that. I am a fighter.”

The three months of Allen’s speakership were marked mostly by sparring with the Republicans she had spurned. Soon after the recall was launched, Allen lashed back, firing 10 staffers loyal to Assembly Republican Leader Jim Brulte. The move further enraged Republicans, including the Orange County GOP Central Committee, which overwhelmingly endorsed her recall.

When the Speaker was making any decisions at all, they struck many lawmakers as odd and counterproductive.

A week ago, when Allen finally introduced a rival plan for Orange County’s recovery from bankruptcy just hours after the county Board of Supervisors approved a delicately crafted proposal, it threatened to blow apart everything that local officials had taken months to assemble.

Confronted about the specifics of her plan, Allen seemed stumped and criticized her staff for failing to fully inform her about its particulars. Allen later backed away from her proposal.

“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” state Sen. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside) said at the time. “Orange County people should pray.”

Even when it came time to dole out positions on important policy committees, it seemed that Allen, in trying to do the right thing, just couldn’t win.

Proclaiming in June that she had ended the “gridlock that has gripped our institution” by giving the GOP a majority on every committee, Allen seemed to have finally pleased her Republican colleagues. But when a Republican assemblyman suggested she replace Brown’s appointees on dozens of state boards and commissions, the House erupted into yet another nasty brawl.

“They never said ‘thank you’ when she won control of committees for them,” Katz said. “They just continued to attack her personally.”

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After reaching the Speaker’s chair, Allen began dumping her critics, most notably Curt Pringle, the Garden Grove Republican, from important chairmanships and choice office locations.

Members of the Orange County legislative delegation soon became her harshest critics, claiming Allen had traded her political allegiance for a powerful position in Sacramento. Never happy over Allen’s reluctance to contribute to their campaigns over the years, they attacked her with a fury when she joined up with Brown and led the charge over her recall.

Absorbing a relentless beating day after day from those inside and outside her delegation, Allen seemed to adopt a bunker mentality. Never a student of diplomacy, Allen’s temper sometimes got the best of her during her short stint as Speaker, particularly behind closed doors.

While meeting with a contingent of Orange County officials and legislative staffers to discuss the bankruptcy several weeks ago, Allen launched into a 10-minute tirade, insiders say.

Allen complained vehemently that--as Speaker--she should be given a big role in the recovery effort, something that had yet to occur. When the meeting broke up, most of the dumbfounded participants left shaking their heads in confusion that she was attacking the very group she said she was trying to help.

Times staff writers Eric Bailey and Peter M. Warren contributed to this report.