NEWS: George Allen Quip Provokes Outrage, Apology; Name Insults Webb Volunteer
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on August 15, 2006 - 8:05am.
Current Events
Hello Everyone:
Please see the Washington Post link and article below titled "Allen Quip Provokes Outrage, Apology; Name Insults Webb Volunteer."
Here is the link to a 55 second video of George Allen's comments for you to see what he said in such an arrogant manner:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081400589.html
This incident made Hannity and Colmes Monday night on FOX News. Sean Hannity dismissed the incident entirely as Allen referring to S.R. Sidarth's haircut and called Jim Webb "a Liberal Democrat." Hannity also said that "Webb is not going to do well in the campaign" and said that "Webb is desperate."
Alan Colmes defended S.R. Sidarth as being a native Virginian from Fairfax County. Hannity again said that Webb is desperate and then the show ended. How I wish that FOX News made transcripts of all their programs like how CNN and MSNBC do so that there would be a paper trail of this!
This incident is getting some very serious coverage on the Raising Kaine blog which is based in Virginia:
http://www.raisingkaine.com/frontPage.do
http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3925
http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3924
http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3923
See the evidence for yourself that George Allen is a very serious threat to become President in 2008 if he is not defeated now in 2006:
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/5213
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/5562
Please forward this on to help bring as much attention to this Senate race and incident as possible!
Mitch Dworkin
http://www.securingamerica.com/
http://www.securingamerica.com/ccn/node/7191
Listen to Gen. Wes Clark fight for Dems on Sean Hannity's radio program:
An excellent example for all of us to follow and what we all need to be doing to help fight against extreme right wing Neocon smear propaganda which will help our local candidates to win their races!
http://securingamerica.com/webb
Gen. Wes Clark's endorsement of Jim Webb against George Allen
--------------------
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081400589.html
Senate Races
Allen Quip Provokes Outrage, Apology
Name Insults Webb Volunteer
By Tim Craig and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 15, 2006; Page A01
RICHMOND, Aug. 14 -- Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) apologized Monday for what his opponent's campaign said were demeaning and insensitive comments the senator made to a 20-year-old volunteer of Indian descent.
At a campaign rally in southwest Virginia on Friday, Allen repeatedly called a volunteer for Democrat James Webb "macaca." During the speech in Breaks, near the Kentucky border, Allen began by saying that he was "going to run this campaign on positive, constructive ideas" and then pointed at S.R. Sidarth in the crowd.
Sen. Allen Speaks in Breaks, Va.
>START VIDEO
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081400589.html
55 Seconds Long
George Allen (R)
Allen remains under pressure to campaign for re-election at home.
Full Funding Report
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/elections/keyraces/funding/n00009957/
Jim Webb (D)
Pulling out a win over Allen would qualify as a huge upset in this firmly-red state.
Full Funding Report
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/elections/keyraces/funding/n00028058/
"This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great," Allen said, as his supporters began to laugh. After saying that Webb was raising money in California with a "bunch of Hollywood movie moguls," Allen said, "Let's give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." Allen then began talking about the "war on terror."
Depending on how it is spelled, the word macaca could mean either a monkey that inhabits the Eastern Hemisphere or a town in South Africa. In some European cultures, macaca is also considered a racial slur against African immigrants, according to several Web sites that track ethnic slurs.
"The kid has a name," Webb communications director Kristian Denny Todd said of Sidarth, a Virginia native who was born in Fairfax County. "This is trying to demean him, to minimize him as a person."
Todd added that the use of macaca, whatever it means, and the reference welcoming Sidarth to America were clearly intended to make him uncomfortable.
Reached Monday evening, Allen said that the word had no derogatory meaning for him and that he was sorry. "I would never want to demean him as an individual. I do apologize if he's offended by that. That was no way the point."
Asked what macaca means, Allen said: "I don't know what it means." He said the word sounds similar to "mohawk," a term that his campaign staff had nicknamed Sidarth because of his haircut. Sidarth said his hairstyle is a mullet -- tight on top, long in the back.
Allen said that by the comment welcoming him to America, he meant: "Just to the real world. Get outside the Beltway and get to the real world."
But the apology, which came hours after Allen's campaign manager dismissed the issue with an expletive and insisted the senator has "nothing to apologize for," did little to mollify Webb's campaign or Sidarth, who said he suspects Allen singled him out because his was the only nonwhite face among about 100 Republican supporters.
"I think he was doing it because he could, and I was the only person of color there, and it was useful for him in inciting his audience," said Sidarth, who videotaped the event for the Webb campaign. "I was annoyed he would use my race in a political context."
Told of Allen's apology, Todd added, "I hope Allen realizes that Virginians come in all colors."
Allen is running for a second term in the Senate while planning a possible presidential bid in 2008. Webb, a Vietnam war hero and former Navy secretary under President Ronald Reagan, is working to derail those plans with an underfunded campaign based principally on Webb's early opposition to the war in Iraq.
Virginia Commonwealth University politics professor Robert Holsworth called Allen's comments a gaffe that probably wouldn't change the Senate race but could hurt his presidential ambitions.
"This doesn't turn the race around at all," Holsworth said. "But for a guy running for president, this is likely to be regularly aired this year and maybe beyond."
House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem), who represents southwest Virginia, said the Webb campaign is just "grabbing for stuff" to gain traction against Allen. Griffith said he doubts anyone at the rally even picked up on Allen's use of the word macaca.
"Not many people in southwest Virginia would think it is derogatory," Griffith said. "I didn't have a clue what it meant, and I doubt Allen did, either."
Sidarth, who is entering his fourth year at the University of Virginia and is an active Democrat, had been assigned to trail Allen with a video camera to document his travels and speeches for Webb, a common campaign tactic.
Steve Mukherjee, a spokesman for the Washington chapter of the Association of Indians in America, said Allen's comments were "hurtful," and he chided the senator for not being more sensitive.
"The world is so volatile and so delicate," Mukherjee said. "You have to be careful what you say and how you say it. The U.S. is no longer black and white."
Asked what macaca means, Mukherjee said: "What it means, I don't know. But it's going to cause him some grief."
It's not the first time Allen has confronted charges of insensitivity to race or ethnicity from minority leaders and longtime political opponents.
Before he ran for governor in 1993, Allen was criticized for keeping a Confederate flag in a cabin near his Charlottesville home, part of a collection of flags, he has said. He stirred controversy as governor by issuing a proclamation noting the South's celebration of Confederate History Month without mentioning slavery.
This year, the New Republic magazine published a photo of Allen wearing a Confederate flag on his lapel during high school.
"It wasn't a racial statement; it was a statement about his rebellious nature," said John Reid, Allen's communications director.
Allen campaign manager Dick Wadhams also went on the offensive, accusing Webb of mailing an anti-Semitic flier during his primary this year that contained a caricature of Webb's Jewish opponent.
Todd said Wadhams is trying to change the subject. "The flier was never meant to be anti-Semitic," she said. "That was a charge levied by our opponent at the time to drive voters away from Jim Webb, much like Allen's trying to do today."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/8/16/93323.shtml?s=ic
Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006 9:30 a.m. EDT
Sen. Allen Apologizes for Remark to Webb Aide
Sen. George Allen apologized Tuesday for remarks that offended a man of Indian descent who was tracking the Republican's re-election campaign for Democratic challenger Jim Webb.
S.R. Sidarth said he felt Allen was singling him out because of his race when the senator called him "Macaca" during a GOP rally Friday at Breaks, Va., near the Kentucky border.
"In no way was it meant to demean him, and I'm sorry if he was offended," Allen said in a telephone interview.
Allen, who is positioning himself for a possible run for president in 2008, said the name was "just made up" and that he had no idea that macaca is a genus of monkeys including macaques. The name also could be spelled Makaka, which is a city in South Africa.
Webb's campaign distributed to reporters a video clip of Allen's remarks about Sidarth, a 20-year-old University of Virginia senior who spent last week videotaping Allen's "listening tour" for the Webb campaign.
"This fellow over here with the yellow shirt - Macaca or whatever his name is - he's with my opponent," Allen said. "He's following us around everywhere."
After mentioning that Webb was in California on a fundraising trip, Allen exhorted the crowd: "Let's give a welcome to Macaca here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."
Sidarth, who was born and raised in Fairfax County, has said he felt Allen was singling him out because he was the only nonwhite in the audience, but an Allen campaign spokesman said not all of the rest of the crowd was white.
On Tuesday, Sidarth said he took little comfort in Allen's attempted amends.
"If he wants to make an apology to me, he can talk to me personally rather than doing this through the press," Sidarth said.
Allen said he would speak personally to Sidarth the next time he sees him at a campaign event.
"I look forward to seeing him," Allen said. "The point of the matter was to chide and poke fun at my opponent, not any of his staff."
Allen, a former Virginia governor, said Tuesday that he was trying to point out that Sidarth was providing Webb "a travelogue" of places the Democrat would never visit.
Sidarth, however, said that "calling me whatever name is the first thing to come into his head has nothing to do with making a travelogue for Mr. Webb."
On Monday, Allen spokesman Dick Wadhams said the name "Macaca" was a variation of "Mohawk," the nickname Allen campaign staffers gave Sidarth for his partially cropped haircut. Allen, however, said Tuesday that he made up the name himself.
Allen has been accused of racial insensitivity before. He wore a Confederate flag pin in his high school yearbook photo, used to keep a Confederate flag in his living room, a noose in his law office and a picture of Confederate troops in his governor's office, but has said he has grown since then.
© 2006 Associated Press.
Condoms: a woman should never have to ask permission from her partner to save her own life - www.GatesFoundation.org
http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2005/05/george_allens_h.html
May 15, 2005George Allen's ugly history on racial issues
I've done some additional digging, and it turns out that George Allen, the Virginia senator who is being touted as the GOP presidential frontrunner for 2008, has more ugly racial history than I first thought.
First, there's the noose he hung from a tree in his law office, which suggests an approving attitude toward lynchings. In 2000, Allen and his Senate campaign manager disavowed any racial connotation, describing the noose as part of a collection of Western memorabilia that represented his law-and-order stance on criminal justice. Then, in February of this year, he tried to claim that it was "more of a lasso" and "has nothing to do with lynching." But reports on the matter that I have read all describe it as a noose, and Allen and his representatives appeared to refer to it as such all the way through 2004. And of course, if the noose "has nothing to do with lynching," why was it hung from a tree? The symbolism seems obvious. As the Richmond Times-Dispatch put it in 2000, the noose was "a reminder that [Allen] saw some justification in frontier justice." Official hangings carried out under the auspices of the law presumably used real gallows, not trees.
Allen also used to display a Confederate flag at his house, which he claims was part of a flag collection.
That's all my initial post covered. But sadly, there's much more to the story.
A March 2005 report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes that, "as governor of Virginia, [Allen] signed a 'Confederate Heritage Month' proclamation while dubbing the NAACP an 'extremist group.'" Here's how the Washington Post described his actions in an article last year:
Allen also opposed the 1991 Civil Rights Act in Congress, and as a state delegate he opposed creating a holiday for Martin Luther King and voted against changing the racially offensive state song (though as governor he later signed legislation dropping the song).
Given all this, it's not surprising that Allen initially defended Trent Lott when he came under fire in 2002 for comments praising Strom Thurmond's presidential candidacy. Initially, Allen called Lott a "decent, honorable man" and said that it is "unacceptable to use the issue of race as a political weapon and try to pin the sins of the past on the leaders of the present." But when Lott's comments provoked a national outcry, Allen reversed field, saying that the "comment was offensive to many Americans, particularly those who have been personally touched by the viciousness of segregation." And after Lott resigned, he added, "This is a day that the United States Senate, with Trent Lott's resignation, has buried, graveyard-dead-and-gone, the days of discrimination and segregation," with an obvious eye toward leaving aside questions about his own past.
Ever since then, Allen has been trying desperately to clean up his record. Last year, he traveled with Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a civil rights pioneer, to the bridge in Selma where Lewis and other protestors were beaten, and in February of this year he introduced a resolution apologizing for the Senate's role in preventing the passage of anti-lynching legislation.
I certainly believe in redemption, but this strikes me as too little, too late. Allen's pattern of offensive actions and racial insensitivity will make it impossible for him to be a president who represents every American.
Update 5/16: Despite reader claims to the contrary, I'm not saying Allen is a racist -- I have no way of knowing what his private thoughts are. I can only judge him on his public actions and statements, and that record is troubling at best.
<!-- technorati tags -->
05:27 PM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2458704
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference George Allen's ugly history on racial issues:
» George Allen in 2008 from Oliver Willis
Dear Republicans, please nominate this man.
Tracked on May 16, 2005 at 02:54 PM
» George Allen's Racist Past? from Bloodless Coup
Apparently The New Republic is going to soon be running a profile of George Allen (R-VA), the senator many insiders see as the leading candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008. The story will feature a review what many... [Read More]
Tracked on April 27, 2006 at 09:41 AM
» Sen. George Allen (R) Calls An Indian a Monkey from MauriceReeves.com
In case you haven't heard, and you might not have, Sen. George Allen, while on the campaign trail, pointed out a staffer from his opponent's campaign and called him "Makaka". The problem? The staffer is from India, and Makaka is... [Read More]
Tracked on August 14, 2006 at 09:59 PM