Monday, September 25, 2006

George Allen's Racial Insult of the Day

At this pace, this might become a running item in this space. It seems that while George was a quarterback in the 70's at our alma mater, he loosely tossed around a tried and true racial slur, rather than resort to a more exotic term like macaca, which he hurled at an Indian-American staffer for the Jim Webb campaign in August. Shortly after Salon's report which broke this story was posted, Allen's campaign released a strong denial of the allegations. However, one of Allen's classmates at UVa (who also happens to be one of the most respected political pundits in the country and a former professor of mine), came out and basically called b.s. on Allen's statements.

Now, to be fair, some of the allegations in the Salon article have yet to be substantiated, but George seems to have a peculiar fascination with the ways of the Old South...which is slightly odd for the son of a famous NFL coach and a French mother who grew in up in the posh community of Palos Verdes, CA.

Earlier this year Allen was talked about as a serious contender for the White House in 2008. That dream seems to be all but dead and there's no guarantee that Allen beats out Webb in November, though I think the odds are still in his favor. However, Webb's campaign is wasting no time in making hay off this episode!

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