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Republican Presidential Hopeful makes a complete ass of himself
veritas
Posts: 31
August 15, 2006
Verbal Gaffe From a Senator, Then an Apology
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 — If Senator George Allen of Virginia is thinking of running for president in 2008, as is widely believed, what he said in a little town in southwestern Virginia several nights ago may haunt him.
“This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is, he’s with my opponent,” the Republican lawmaker said on Friday night at a rally in Breaks, next to the Kentucky border. “He’s following us around everywhere. And it’s just great.”
Mr. Allen, a Republican running for re-election to the Senate, was singling out S.R. Sidarth, a 20-year-old volunteer for Mr. Allen’s Democratic challenger, James Webb. Mr. Sidarth’s mission was to trail Mr. Allen and videotape his speeches, in the hope they would yield grist for the Webb campaign.
But it was Mr. Allen who supplied grist for his rival with his use of the term “macaca,” a genus that includes numerous species of monkeys found in Asia.
Mr. Allen said Monday that he meant no insult, that he was sorry if he hurt anyone’s feelings and that he did not know what “macaca” meant, according to The Washington Post, which reported about the incident today.
Mr. Sidarth, who is of Indian descent, was not convinced. “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,” Mr. Sidarth told The Post.
The senator’s communications director, John Reid, said in an interview today that Allen campaign workers had good-naturedly nicknamed Mr. Sidarth “Mohawk” because he would not disclose his name and the sobriquet seemed appropriate for Mr. Sidarth’s hair style.
Perhaps, Mr. Reid suggested, “Mohawk” morphed into “macaca,” with results that turned out to be regrettable.
After his initial use of the term, Mr. Allen went on to urge the crowd to “give a welcome to macaca here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.”
Mr. Reid said those words were not an attempt to stamp a “foreigner” label on Mr. Sidarth, who, incidentally, was born in Fairfax County, Va. People who follow the senator’s campaign know that he often talks about “the real America, real people in the real world,” meaning people outside the Washington Beltway, Mr. Reid said.
Mr. Allen expressed further regrets today. “I apologize if my comments offended this young man,” he said.
Mr. Webb’s communications director, Kristian Denny Todd, was highly skeptical. “I think it’s reaching, at best,” Ms. Todd said in an interview.
Several Virginia polls show Mr. Webb, a Vietnam war hero, novelist and former navy secretary under President Ronald Reagan, trailing Mr. Allen. Yet Ms. Todd said there is no discouragement in the Webb camp. “We have a fantastic candidate,” she said, asserting that Mr. Webb offers leadership instead of a rubber stamp for President Bush.
Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said today that Mr. Allen was strong enough in Virginia that the verbal gaffe would probably not keep him from being elected to a second term in the Senate.
But should Mr. Allen run for president, the word “macaca” will hurt him, “not only because it is offensive on its face but also because it fits into a long pattern of insensitivity by Allen on racial and ethnic matters,” Mr. Sabato said.
Mr. Sabato was student council president at the University of Virginia when Mr. Allen was class president there three decades ago.
In 1984, as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Mr. Allen opposed a state holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After being elected governor in 1993, he issued a proclamation honoring Confederate History Month. He also kept a Confederate flag in his home, according to The Almanac of American Politics.
The Almanac also notes that as a senator Mr. Allen sponsored legislation to award $1.25 billion in grants for computers and technology for historically black colleges and universities (the measure died in the House), and that he proposed that the Senate apologize for its failure to enact anti-lynching laws in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
“I have worked very hard in the Senate to reach out to all Americans, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity or gender,” Mr. Allen said today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/washington/15cnd-allen.html?hp&ex=1155700800&en=7bfc51752a504010&ei=5094&partner=homepage
"Mohawk"... get it... because he is of Indian descent .... Indian as in India.......Racialist
and he cant be American unless he is white ?? even if he was born in America i guess
be proud Virginia
Verbal Gaffe From a Senator, Then an Apology
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 — If Senator George Allen of Virginia is thinking of running for president in 2008, as is widely believed, what he said in a little town in southwestern Virginia several nights ago may haunt him.
“This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is, he’s with my opponent,” the Republican lawmaker said on Friday night at a rally in Breaks, next to the Kentucky border. “He’s following us around everywhere. And it’s just great.”
Mr. Allen, a Republican running for re-election to the Senate, was singling out S.R. Sidarth, a 20-year-old volunteer for Mr. Allen’s Democratic challenger, James Webb. Mr. Sidarth’s mission was to trail Mr. Allen and videotape his speeches, in the hope they would yield grist for the Webb campaign.
But it was Mr. Allen who supplied grist for his rival with his use of the term “macaca,” a genus that includes numerous species of monkeys found in Asia.
Mr. Allen said Monday that he meant no insult, that he was sorry if he hurt anyone’s feelings and that he did not know what “macaca” meant, according to The Washington Post, which reported about the incident today.
Mr. Sidarth, who is of Indian descent, was not convinced. “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,” Mr. Sidarth told The Post.
The senator’s communications director, John Reid, said in an interview today that Allen campaign workers had good-naturedly nicknamed Mr. Sidarth “Mohawk” because he would not disclose his name and the sobriquet seemed appropriate for Mr. Sidarth’s hair style.
Perhaps, Mr. Reid suggested, “Mohawk” morphed into “macaca,” with results that turned out to be regrettable.
After his initial use of the term, Mr. Allen went on to urge the crowd to “give a welcome to macaca here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.”
Mr. Reid said those words were not an attempt to stamp a “foreigner” label on Mr. Sidarth, who, incidentally, was born in Fairfax County, Va. People who follow the senator’s campaign know that he often talks about “the real America, real people in the real world,” meaning people outside the Washington Beltway, Mr. Reid said.
Mr. Allen expressed further regrets today. “I apologize if my comments offended this young man,” he said.
Mr. Webb’s communications director, Kristian Denny Todd, was highly skeptical. “I think it’s reaching, at best,” Ms. Todd said in an interview.
Several Virginia polls show Mr. Webb, a Vietnam war hero, novelist and former navy secretary under President Ronald Reagan, trailing Mr. Allen. Yet Ms. Todd said there is no discouragement in the Webb camp. “We have a fantastic candidate,” she said, asserting that Mr. Webb offers leadership instead of a rubber stamp for President Bush.
Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said today that Mr. Allen was strong enough in Virginia that the verbal gaffe would probably not keep him from being elected to a second term in the Senate.
But should Mr. Allen run for president, the word “macaca” will hurt him, “not only because it is offensive on its face but also because it fits into a long pattern of insensitivity by Allen on racial and ethnic matters,” Mr. Sabato said.
Mr. Sabato was student council president at the University of Virginia when Mr. Allen was class president there three decades ago.
In 1984, as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Mr. Allen opposed a state holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After being elected governor in 1993, he issued a proclamation honoring Confederate History Month. He also kept a Confederate flag in his home, according to The Almanac of American Politics.
The Almanac also notes that as a senator Mr. Allen sponsored legislation to award $1.25 billion in grants for computers and technology for historically black colleges and universities (the measure died in the House), and that he proposed that the Senate apologize for its failure to enact anti-lynching laws in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
“I have worked very hard in the Senate to reach out to all Americans, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity or gender,” Mr. Allen said today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/washington/15cnd-allen.html?hp&ex=1155700800&en=7bfc51752a504010&ei=5094&partner=homepage
"Mohawk"... get it... because he is of Indian descent .... Indian as in India.......Racialist
and he cant be American unless he is white ?? even if he was born in America i guess
be proud Virginia
riot act is best
cunts watch their bodies
cunts watch their bodies
Post edited by Unknown User on
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George Washington
"Hey, if God didn’t want me to wear it so much, he wouldn’t have made them rock so hard."
You mean... BYAHHHHH!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqUkcaqjR6I
"Hey, if God didn’t want me to wear it so much, he wouldn’t have made them rock so hard."
George Washington
How do you know all this?
Because a thread like this was created while I'm waiting for a liberal poster to address the Iranian cartoon mocking the Halocaust. I would do it myself, but I want to see if you guys REALLY do care about sensitivity.
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Right, and freaking out because the UAB would take over a terminal is not racist but calling the Hezbos terrorists is. These people obviously have a firm grip of reality.
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
I jsut don't see why anyone would care about something they couldn't possibly do anything about. That's why most of us spend our time looking at our own governments, rather than what Iran is up too these days, or Egypt, it's waste of time.
I care about things I can change, its just makes more sense.
So, you think that a US Senator making a mistake while speaking is more serious than a dictator (who has advocated the elimination of another country, has armed manipulative thugs to attack that country, denies that the halocaust ever happened) mocking the halocaust? No, that really doesn't make a lot of sense.
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
The former is relevant if you live in the US. But the latter has none, unless of you are Iranian, in which case my sincerest apologies.
Pretty basic concept really.
I don't know, since we are now technologically equipped to talk to people from other nations, and that the actions of other nations have consequences all over the globe, I think the actions of these nation's leaders are very relevant. Given all this, I think the actions and words of actual real life world leaders are much more relevant than a mispeaking wannabe Presidential candidate.
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Do you know where the power lies?
With the people. Consent of the goverened dictates that our leaders, any leader of any country, governs with the consent of the people. The leaders do only what the people let them get away with. As such it makes more sense to care about ones own country, somehting an individual can do something about, than it does to worry about a foreign leader, something no more useful than gossip.
But by this reasoning, don't you have to live in Virginia to say anything about this incident?
uhhm, yeah, pretty much.
So, you think that the elected President of a soveriegn state making a few mistranslated / choice remarks while speaking is more serious than a dictator who has advocated and presided over the invasion and wanton, actual destruction of two countries, has listened to manipulative thugs to attack another country, denies that those invasions were failures and denies the right for the Palestinans to self determination, who also denies global warming as a threat to mankind, the way scientific experts say it is?
No, that really doesn't make a lot of sense
Hell no. He's a possible candidate for the next general election, and a public person in this country, and a s citizen of this country that he dreams about running, I got a right to question and discuss this blatant, racist Republican Senator.
True colours firmly on show there I do suspect. To the republicans, there ain't enough white, in the stars and stripes. And hey, you don't believe me? Two words: New Orleans.
silverstain... if you think the repubs are all about whiteness you might wanna check out Senator Byrd (d), you might wanna see what happens to conservative black politicians, they are no better:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20051101-104932-4054r.htm
Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican.
Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an "Uncle Tom" and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log.
Operatives for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) also obtained a copy of his credit report -- the only Republican candidate so targeted....
Delegate Salima Siler Marriott, a black Baltimore Democrat, said Mr. Steele invites comparisons to a slave who loves his cruel master or a cookie that is black on the outside and white inside because his conservative political philosophy is, in her view, anti-black.
"Because he is a conservative, he is different than most public blacks, and he is different than most people in our community," she said. "His politics are not in the best interest of the masses of black people."
During the 2002 campaign, Democratic supporters pelted Mr. Steele with Oreo cookies during a gubernatorial debate at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
In 2001, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. called Mr. Steele an "Uncle Tom," when Mr. Steele headed the state Republican Party. Mr. Miller, Prince George's County Democrat, later apologized for the remark.
"That's not racial. If they call him the "N' word, that's racial," Mrs. Marriott said. "Just because he's black, everything bad you say about him isn't racial."
That wouldn't be addressed here - it's only anti-semitism, which, according to the mental midgets on this board, doesn't exist.
But we are not talking about a Presidential election. We are talking about Virginia's Senatorial election here. I'm not saying you have no right to question him. I'm just saying that you are making a mountain out of a grain of sand here.
Reasonable point, but does it mean that I cannot have empathy for the coloured people of Virginia if this man is elected to represent them?
I mean, as an example, I don't know any Iraqis, but I sure as hell can speak out about our involvement in the murder and destruction of their country and of its population.
And you have libs espousing a blatently racist attitude in regards to an UAE company controlling a terminal in our ports.
I guess racism is ok if it's convenient for your point of view for the fringe left.
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
If George Allen used the term "colored people" it would be a MUCH bigger issue than this non-story.
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Huh?
Could you be reaching any further?
How else could I have put it?
And really, its only a non-story if you agree with his sentiments.
Is it a dukes of hazzard fan reunion day here today?
That's an interesting theory. According to this logic, the fact that a thread has not been created to denounce the cartoons mocking the halocaust (thus treating it as a non-story) says a lot about the sentiments that some people here hold.
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days