These days they call themselves Republicans.
Everybody who didn’t see this story coming ten miles away, please turn in your pundit card*. Given George Allen’s fetishistic displays of the confederate flag at a time when doing so in southern California indicated pretty clearly how one felt about civil rights, a history of racist graffiti, the unexplained noose and of course the famous French slur it seems like Allen has done a piss-poor job of keeping his inner klansman on the inside. Chalk up one more guy who never will be president, and probably won’t remain a Senator either.
—
(*) Ha ha just kidding, the pundit card only gets revoked if you are right. See: critics, Iraq war.
SomeCallMeTim
and probably won’t remain a Senator either.
I’m pretty sure he’s running in Virginia. I’ll count it as a hopeful sign if he doesn’t win in a landslide.
Tsulagi
Now wasn’t that letter special.
Not only are the majority of today’s Republican retardocons spineless and totally devoid of character, honor, or integrity, Senator Macaca’s Center for Concerned Conservative buds show what a true pile of caca they are.
Tom in Texas
That was one of the most vile emails I have ever read, Tim. Not to focus on the fly in that huge pile of excrement, but who the hell throws out their IQ in an email to someone they’ve never met? What a shallow, insecure human being.
Bruce Moomaw
Beore we despair too much of Virginia, keep in mind the remarkable fact that it remains the only state in US history so far to freely elect a black governor. This still leaves open the question of why it lurched back toward the current ultraright GOP in the early 1990s, but at any rate the place is definitely not still Harry Byrd country — something Allen seems not to have taken into account.
His loss, however, is also very far from being a sure thing. Leaving aside the notoriously inaccurate state polls of Zogby, the only post-Macaca poll I’ve seen on this race (Rasmussen) showed Allen still holding onto a 5-point margin a couple of weeks ago (although I’ll bet the new revelations, plus the continuing bubblings from the original incident, have knocked him down a bit further).
feral1
God I hope the Webb campaign hangs that photo and email around Allen’s neck.
demimondian
Look, I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade — except that of George Allen — but, folks, so far, this is all guilt by association. We have *one* picture, plus the allegations of a party that wants to pursue all possible means to be seen, much less seen as legitimate.
Hell, I don’t even know the provenance of the photograph. Could it be a forgery? Does somebody else have a way of verifying it for me?
John S.
Are you saying there is nothing wrong with hanging out with racists?
demimondian
Upon the basis of what evidence do you make the claim of “hanging around with racists”? That’s the “guilt by association” claim to which I object. The photo was taken at CPAC ’96, where there are lots of random photo ops.
neil
feral1, no worries on that score.
SeesThroughIt
Wow, that Holt email is something else. What a pathetic little man.
chopper
sorry, but electing a black governor is not a ‘get out of racism free’ card.
demimondian
Is “pathetic” really the right term? He’s not pathetic, he’s disgusting.
EL
That email is nauseating (and also pathetic.)
The link is a bit tenuous to Allen, though I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he shared such ideas. Any reporters out there who will ask him about his connection to the Conservative Citizens Council, and their sentiments? I would so enjoy seeing Allen have to choose between repudiating that racist base, and alienating all the reasonable voters of Virginia.
Sam Hutcheson
This is the same CCC that was integral in Trent Lott’s campaigns in Mississippi, yes?
Cyrus
If it were just the smiling photo with members of the Council of Conservative Citizens, I’d agree we shouldn’t be too hard on George Felix Allen about it.
Likewise, if it were just the noose he used to have hanging in his office. Or if it were just the proud affiliation with the Confederate States of America (by a Californian). Or if it were just the use of a racial slur. Or if it were just the “welcome to America, welcome to Virginia” directed at a dark-skinned individual even though he has lived in the state longer than Allen himself.
Well, you get the idea. We do not just have one picture.
Cyrus
Well, I don’t know this is true. I read that Sidarth was “born and raised” in Virginia, but it’s possible he hasn’t lived there continuously since then, and it’s also possible that Allen has lived in Virginia since before Sidarth was born. Just trying to be nitpicky, or rather to protect myself if anyone else gets nitpicky.
Thrillhous
Allen’s probably done as a prez candidate, but I doubt he’ll lose his senate seat.
I just don’t think many of my fellow Virginians are on the fence about Allen, and charges of racism that aren’t backed up by something a lot heavier than “macacca” and some old photo ops just ain’t going to change many people’s minds. Remember, when he was governor he took several high-profile, pro-racist stances, such as opposing MLK day.
demimondian
You are absolutely correct, and I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t think Allen’s a racist. I think he is. It’s just that this would be a much, much worse example than anything else we’ve seen so far, as a result of which, I don’t want to make this accusation incorrectly.
Tsulagi
There’s an article in The Nation about Allen’s associations with Confederacy luvin groups including the Council of Conservative Citizens. I didn’t know his Confederate fetish went so far. Guy is a little sick. If in some alternate universe (please not this one) he were elected president, you just know what flag design he would have in the Oval Office carpet during his presidency.
lard lad
Here’s how I call it: either Allen is a racist, which is very bad; or he’s deliberately exploiting racist sympathies to get votes, which is worse. I don’t imagine that he personally hates blacks or Jews, but it’s clear that he will happily sell both down the river for political gain.
One thing I wonder: how do the anti-semitic tendencies of Dixiecrat Republicans play out in the GOP when the party in general has become so favorable to hard-right Zionism?
I guess George Allen and Richard Perle should never be seated together at Republican get-togethers…
Tim F.
Demimondian,
Read the original article and then ask whether the photo could possibly be a fluke.
edit: Tsulagi already posted it.
D. Mason
I hate to even say this because it will surely get me labeled as a bigot, but here it comes anyway. I would rather a racist who is honest about it than another serial liar. Atleast with a guy who is upfront about his shitty opinions you can confront him and deal with it. When a candidate just lies and speaks half truths you can’t even pin his positions down well enough to debate or argue with him about them. And face it, no single racist is going to be able top push a racist policy through a well divided legislature.
My point is that at this juncture I prefer some hideous honesty over flowery lies(especially if the truth is just as ugly either way). If he will come out and say “I hate niggers” I can atleast respect the fact that he has the balls to say what he actually believes as opposed to the people we have running the country now who constantly say one thing while they believe the polar opposite.
demimondian
Tim — I have read it. The Nation article is long on assertions, short on substance. OMFG, Allen associated with the Sons of the Confederacy and the Daughters of the Confederacy? Oh, noes!
Again, about this picture, we only have the word of the CCC. Heston is too far gone into dementia to answer reliably, poor bastard, and the CCC has every reason to lie about this — just as The Nation does. (No, I don’t trust The Nation. I’d as soon trust the Weekly Standard. The Nation doesn’t even have a better crossword any more.)
Kimmitt
D. Mason — I completely agree.
lard lad
That’s not bigotry at all, D. — that’s common sense. Let me put it like this: I know several black folk who’ve moved from the Deep South to Northern California (like I did), who share a common beef with the area: the racists here – and they do exist – keep their bigotry concealed. In Alabama, it’s a lot easier to tell who the haters are.
That’s my gripe with political correctness, actually… it doesn’t really address issues of sexism, racism, classism, homophobia – just drives them underground. Fuck that. I want to know who the assholes are out there… makes it easier to give them a wide berth.
ThymeZone
Let’s cut the crap, okay?
This is the organization that Allen kisses up to.
What do you think those flags are about? Pickett’s Charge?
The Other Steve
I suspect lard lad is probably correct. It sounds to me like this Allen guy just plays around this racism stuff because it makes him friends.
The Other Steve
I also agree with lard lad on political correctness.
ThymeZone
Uh, no. A public person who would do that is crazy.
Crazy is not a viable choice over …. anything. It’s just another shitty choice.
ThymeZone
Off topic, but Keith Olberman just handed the disgusting Donald Rumsfeld his ass on Countdown. I mean, handed him his frigging worthless ass.
I will get the transcript later, and I’m going to make it my personal anthem for the next ten weeks.
ThymeZone
OMFG. What a night for tv. Try to catch the rebroadcasts later …. Tucker Carlson melts down on the Warren Jeffs case. Biggest anchor meltdown I’ve seen in a long time.
There must be something in the air this evening.
ThymeZone
Wow.
Emphasis, mine.
demimondian
I read the Olberman text — wow. Just wow. About time, too.
No, Mr. Rumsfeld, a press that does its job is not the nation’s enemy. It’s just shocking to discover that there are limits to the extent to which you can lead them off on the garden path, eh?
Where’s the Carlson transcript — I haven’t read it yet…
ThymeZone
I think they put it up the morning after.
Basically, Carlson went off on the AG who is prosecuting Jeffs, starting with “Why is this guy one of the Ten Most Wanted … is he really that bad?”
MSNBC has the segment up on streaming video (see their MSNBC tv page).
ThymeZone
Wow, just watched the Carlson video myself, second time I’ve seen it. What an ass Tucker is. Jesus.
I can hardly believe that guys like him and O’Reilly can get tv shows. What a great country!
demimondian
Yeah, I found it. (On freerepublic, so sue me…) Another “wow, just wow” moment. I liked the “the youngest ‘wife’ was thirteen years old” from the AG, with Carlson responding “This is a really hard-line panel”.
I’m reduced to something not unlike speechlessness.
demimondian
Oh, and in the cutting the crap vein. Thyme, the CCC is a hate organization. They’re racist and homophobic to the bone. They’ll lie, cheat, and steal in order to forward their goals. If George Allen sucked up to them, his career is over — the Pubs will run away as fast as they can.
However, the very fact that the CCC consists of stupid people who will lie, cheat, and steal is exactly why *I don’t trust them* on this issue. They have every reason to lie, so I can easily believe that *they* are lying, and not realizing that their story hurts Allen.
ThymeZone
Oh, well I wasn’t taking the tack at the story that you are.
Mine was, Allen sucks up to these idiots, and good for Dems for promoting the photo and/or doing anything that ties CCC around his neck. Unless he wants to come forward and separate himself from them, and everything they stand for, in some convincing way, I say, pimp the story for all it’s worth. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Or a more deserving guy, AFAIC.
demimondian
I agree with this completely. I just think we need to be properly weasel-worded about it:
Senator, have you stopped posing with white supremacist groups at conservative conventions? Have you ever accepted a contribution from a group that promotes racial hatred?
That kind of vile, disgusting rhetorical corruption, you know? Like you said, he deserves it. (I’ll leave to the reader to decide whether the voters of Virginia deserve it.)
Richard Bottoms
>OMFG, Allen associated with the Sons of the Confederacy and >the Daughters of the Confederacy?
Yes, hanging with a bunch of racists longing for the good old days is a disqualifier. The usual crap that keeps black support of the GOP hovering around 10%.
The rebel flag is as offensive to us as a swastika, and watching Republicans tie themselves in contortions to avoid denouncing it, and the Sons of the Confederacy types that makes up its Southern base is much fun. Certainly guranteed to remind black folks why the GOP is no place for us.
I do so hope John McCain goes to Bob Jones U. so he can hurry up and write off what black support he has now.
ThymeZone
I know a couple of very respectable Virgianians. But there’s a demo there, apparently, that is some kind of throwback. Allen is an embarassment to the state, I think.
Of course, I come from the state that sends John Kyl and John McCain to the great deliberative body. So I should talk.
lard lad
Just watched the clip on Crooks and Liars. Jesus Fucking Christ.
Though he would modestly refuse the accolade, Keith Olbermann really is the Edward R. Murrow of our time. He likes to make with the jokes, but when he gets truly serious… damn. The man is sharp as a katana.
Watch it yourself, and pass it around. Lots more people need to see this…
Tom in Texas
Yes but my state is bipartisanly insane — Sheila Jackson Lee AND Tom DeLay… and for the trifecta we’ll throw in Cornyn. Hell down here Ron Paul is reasonable.
Bombadil
But as long as you have insane politicians, you will have Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower, so there’s a rose among the thorns.
feral1
I don’t mean in the blogs. They need to push it into the mainstream media. Allen needs to be asked specific questions about his relationship with the CCC and if he doesn’t aggressively denounce them, they need to hit him with the email.
And for those in this thread that think it is unfair to use guilt by assocation with Allen. Just imagine what the response would be if someone produced a photograph of a Democratic politician like John Edwards on stage with a group like ANSWER. The roar from the right would be deafening. The CCC is an extreme hate group and needs to be branded as such, until they are so radioactive no mainstream politician would come within five miles of them.
The Other Steve
I don’t know that it was a meltdown, just pathetically stupid. I watched the 20/20 or whatever expose of what this guy had done and what he’s hte leader of, and it’s really quite scarey.
Which was the point the AG from Utah was trying to get across, and Tucker just kept saying something like “Well it’s not as bad as them hanging homo’s in Iran”.
demimondian
fera1…who cares what happens with the right?
FDDD has an old sticker up in her office which says “A woman has to be ten times as good to be considered equal to a man.” It was part of a very snarky bumpersticker, but it actually reflects an important truth about markets with incumbents: to break in, a competing brand must either be much cheaper or much better.
Currently, the bad guys are the incumbents. They have the press advantages of incumbency, as well as the widespread belief that they are the devil folks already know. They can get away with some things we can’t, and this is one of those things.
demimondian
Molly Ivins, possibly, but Jim Hightower is as interplanetary weird as anyone.
feral1
The reason the Right gets away this shit, is because we let the media let them, not because they are incumbents. Again, if Edwards was photographed with ANSWER, wingnuts would howl until the mainstream media was forced to cover it,whether they were in power or not. If Democrats can’t take advantage something like this served up on a silver platter, that is pathetic.
RSA
Molly Ivins is the saving grace of Texas, just as Carl Hiaasen is the saving grace of Florida.
RSA
Also, without meaning to denigrate D. Mason’s view, I think that “respect” is not quite the right word to use. I mean, it seems reasonable in the abstract to say, “I respect so-and-so’s being honest rather than lying about his views,” but consider all the outright villains whose honesty we’d have to admit that we respect: (fill in the blank here). For me, I’m more comfortable saying, “So-and-so is an utter racist; maybe the best thing that can be said about him is that his vices don’t include lying about it.” For what it’s worth.
feral1
Molly makes me proud that I was born and raised in the Lone Star state. I saw her speak and got her to autograph one her books for my mom.
Larry
Methinks the hypocritical Rapturists will find a way.
Bombadil
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
And I left out Kinky Friedman, too.
The Other Steve
That is very true.
How many Dem politicians stay away from getting their picture taken with say Cindy Sheehan?
But it’s ok for Allen to get his picture taken with the KKK? And we’re not to think anything of it, because lot’s of random pictures get taken.
sglover
Speaking as somebody who prefers to stay on the Maryland side of the Potomac, I have to say that Virginia can’t really be written off as a solid red state. This year, Allen’s facing a pretty strong challenge from James Webb — not exactly a social democrat, but a reasonable alternative to the pathology of the contemporary GOP. In addition, don’t forget Ollie North’s abortive run for the U.S. Senate. Virginians rallied to give the criminal the humiliating stomping he deserved.
sglover
Well, I don’t know this is true. I read that Sidarth was “born and raised” in Virginia, but it’s possible he hasn’t lived there continuously since then, and it’s also possible that Allen has lived in Virginia since before Sidarth was from whiborn. Just trying to be nitpicky, or rather to protect myself if anyone else gets nitpicky.
Well, you can search the Washington Post, if you like (I don’t feel like doing your work for you). They had an article about him last week — he’s spent pretty much his whole life in VA, joined the football and quiz show teams at a competitive Fairfax high school, and graduated with a 4.1 (!) GPA. He’s more a Virginian, and apparently more a man, than Allen.
Is it really a wise strategy for Republicans to lean so heavily on trust fund pussies who talk tough, but never accomplish a single thing outside of daddy’s protective shadow?