It’s official. Former Virginia Governor George Allen will run for the U.S. Senate for the seat currently held by Senator Jim Webb. As a matter of fact, George Allen ran for the same seat in 2006 and lost to Senator Webb. Part of Allen’s problem was a screwed the pooch remark made about a Democratic operative who had been shadowing him. He called the young man, Macaca, attempting to be funny. It wasn’t and Allen still bears the scars from his unfortunate mistake. The Democrats were all over that mistake.
George Allen speaks of it today. According to the Huffington Post:
“I made mistakes and I take responsibility for them,” Allen said in an interview with Bearing Drift, before seemingly attempting to play off the slur as a fabricated word that other people had mistakenly interpreted as offensive, a move that he similarly attempted in 2006.
“I needlessly drew a college student who was following me around all over Virginia into the race, and I should not have. He was just doing his job and I should not have made him part of the issue,” Allen said of S.R. Sidarth, the Democratic tracker of Indian descent he was addressing. “It was not done with malice, and if I had known that that made-up word would be connoted as a racial insult I would not have said it.”
After Allen used the phrase in summer 2006, it quickly became a racially-charged ball and chain that is largely thought to have sunk him in his battle against his opponent, Democrat Jim Webb.
As George Allen, who was the one time darling of Virginia Republicans, attempted to address the perceived macaca problem, our very own Corey Stewart was quick to seize the opportunity to throw Allen under the bus:
Stewart, who is heading to Richmond, Va. on Tuesday to talk to party activists and court donors ahead of his own likely Senate bid, said he, along with other Republicans in the state, is “concerned that [Allen’s] not going to be able to shake off the ‘macaca’ moment.”
Corey might want to think about his own transgressions in the loose lips department. The moonhowlings folder has all sorts of gaffes that I feel certain the Allen campaign would find useful. A few Allen aides could use our search engine to pull out highlights, or should I say low lights of many a slip of the tongue made by Stewart.
First of all, George has to stop saying that “Macaca” itself is a made-up word. It is not. It was indeed a common epithet used by the Belgian colonialists in that hell hole of the Belgian Congo as a way to denigrate the Africans. Comes from “Macaque” — a species of monkey. I don’t know how George would ever have picked on such an old expression, as I can see no connection between his life and the Congo. Maybe it WAS just an expression that was made up in his own mind without an actual connection to the true historical meaning. I often do that playfully with the grandkids — greet them all in fun with made up names that have no actual meaning. Maybe somebody here can define “Gooberwinkie” for me?
In any case, I don’t think that, even with the pounding George got over “Macaca” from an opposition desperate for any leg up in that race, that was a moment that could not have been overcome by a good campaigner. Therein lies what I saw as George’s real problem. At some point in the Summer of that election year, George and his campaign appeared to go into hibernation. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! You never get so confident of incumbency that you cease to make a constant appearance on the battlefield. In fact, it is when you think you may win that you redouble your effort. The sports equivalent of that is called “putting them away.” If George is going to make a race of it this time, I hope he gets some smarter and more forceful campaign managers — and listens to them.
George Allen is still around? Hasn’t he gotten a real job?
I really hope someone else gets the nod. I’m SOOOOO tired of professional politicians.
Good grief, NOT George Allen again.
I’d like to know more about Jamie Radtke.
I never thought these words would pour from my lips. I don’t believe George Allen intended to do anything but make fun of his shadow. I don’t think he was being racist. Now, about the Democrats p-icking up at the opportune moment and running with it? Do you blame them?
So far we have Marshall, Stewart, Allen. Now…..Stewart and Marshall are a joke.
I completely agree with you about Allen in that case. I think he made up the word because he thought it sounded foreign. That camera dude did look weird.
His mistake was being ashamed of what he said. He should have forthrightly apologized for any offense, stated that he made up a word because camera guy looked funny and he was trying to make a bad joke. And then ignored it and carried on.
But he fell right into the Democrats trap. And if you’re not smart enough to stay out of such an obvious trap, you’re too stupid to be a Senator.
@Moon-howler
I have a vote in the Virginia Republican primary and given the field of candidates as of today it goes to George Allen. Allen made a stupid remark in 2006 but I agree with Moon that he did not intend to be racist. He has apologized, and acknowledged that what he said was uninformed and stupid. It’s time to move on. Only those who have never said something really, really dumb unintentionally may continue to dwell on this.
If Virginia Republicans are gullible (and stupid) enough to nominate Corey Stewart and, heaven forbid, Virginia voters elect him to the U.S. Senate, I will apologize for all of the cynical remarks I’ve made about the Mayan calendar prophecies for December 21, 2012.
Allen’s best way of dealing with Stewart now is to ignore him. If it appears that Stewart might be picking up some traction in the primary, I will be glad to join with Moon in helping the Allen campaign. I have a vast hard drive filled with material from many years back on Prince William County politics, much of which is no longer available online, and analysis of what Stewart has done. I’m somewhat neurotic about saving that sort of stuff.
Moon has my permission to put the Allen people in touch with me if they call.
Once a person has apologized, whether the person is a Republican, Democrat, or Independent, there really isn’t much else they can do. What person hasn’t said stupid things?
It’s definitely time to move past this silliness and start talking issues. That is probably what Corey doesn’t want to do. He only sings one song. He prefers to throw someone from his own party under a bus on the Macaca incident. Poor form. That won’t go forgotten. Corey needs to start thinking about the future and about paybacks being rough. Right now, he had better hope that Allen doesn’t give him a good swift kick as he walks over him.
Corey is a little piss ant compared to George Allen.
Why you insensitive (B-word), as if we poor piss ants weren’t maligned enough, you lump Corey in with us. You’re doing wonders for our already low self-esteem.
@P.Ant
That’s funny.
P. Ant, sorry about that. Someone has to take him.
“Once a person has apologized, whether the person is a Republican, Democrat, or Independent, there really isn’t much else they can do. What person hasn’t said stupid things?”
Here, Here! Lest we not forget, he was punished at the polls for his unfortunate utterance. I hope the voters will see passed this, and make it a non-issue. Let’s see what Allen is purposing in the way of positions. What concerens me is the whole “RINO” word being thrown about at the mention of Allen’s name, especially when I haven’t seen a single justification for it. Usually, that label is reserved for Republicans who consistently break with their party on important issues, and vote with the Democrats. Justified or not, this is what the term was coined to describe. I challenge anyone to point to a time where Allen did this. The term has been co-opted by some people who may have voted GOP in the past, but chose to stay home when their candidate didn’t get the nomination.
@Moon-howler Once a person has apologized, whether the person is a Republican, Democrat, or Independent, there really isn’t much else they can do. What person hasn’t said stupid things?
It was his sheepish, foolish response to the criticism that completely turned me off from Allen. I honestly don’t think he meant anything racial–i do believe that it really just slipped out of his mouth. So why not just acknowledge the gaffe and refuse to be bullied by the race-baiting? My new litmus test for candidates: Have they learned the definition of insanity yet?
I’m not a particularly big fan of Allen. I voted for Webb in ’06 and I liked him a great deal. Unfortunately, he must pay a political price for his votes. Will it be a big enough political price? Who knows?
Webb would make a spectacular SecDef IMO.
I don’t have anything against Webb at all. I just don’t think Allen needs to be vilified any further over something stupid. Tear up his policies. That’s fine, but Macaca? Enough! It really boils my blood that someone like Corey nailed him on it. Corey sticks his foot in his mouth every time he gets near an open mic.