A Minority Republican? Will Wonders Never Cease…
Sure, it’s anecdotal, but it says a lot about the Democrats and the minority vote they take for granted:
A funny thing happened when I went to vote in the primary election. I signed in at my district’s desk and a poll worker printed my information on a green card. She gave the card to another worker, who adjusted some mechanism on the side of the voting booth. I entered the booth and soon discovered I could not push down the lever for my candidate. When I asked for assistance, the poll worker checked the lever and said with a shocked tone: “You’re a Republican?”
The shock spread to all the women at the table, who apologized profusely for their supposition. Unfortunately, they said, I would have to fill out a paper ballot or wait for a Democrat to come in and use the booth, as it was already primed for Democrat voters. I wasn’t in a rush and so elected to wait, but voting was very, very light. Eventually, a black woman in a wheelchair entered the area and the poll workers breathed a sigh of relief. The woman signed her name, the poll worker filled out a green card, and — oh, no. The woman was a Republican, too. We both ended up filling out the paper ballots and had a good laugh.
Speaking of racial issues, Salon is out with another smear job on George Allen today, quoting three college teammates who say Allen frequently used the “N” word; thus, Webb becomes the first politician to seek office using the “Mark Fuhrman” defense.
Obviously, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know if it’s true or not; but I find the timing to be most suspicious. Furthermore, if you read the headline but not the article, you’ll miss this:
Over the past week, Salon has interviewed 19 former teammates and college friends of Allen from the University of Virginia. In addition to the three who said Allen used the word “nigger,” two others who were contacted said they remember being bothered by Allen’s displaying the Confederate flag in college, but said they do not remember him acting in an overtly racist manner. Seven others said they did not know Allen well outside the football team, but do not remember Allen demonstrating any racist feelings. A separate seven teammates and friends said they knew Allen well and did not believe he held racist views. “I don’t believe he was insensitive,” said Paul Ryczek, who played center in Allen’s year before joining the Atlanta Falcons. “He had no prejudices, biases or anything else.”
If you’re keeping score, Allen-Is-Not-A-Racist tops Allen-Is-A-Racist by a wide margin.
This campaign is just ugly; George Allen has a record. He’s not an unknown. There are important issues at play in this election for Virginia and the nation. Yet racial politics have come to dominate the Allen-Webb matchup. Both candidates, who I have every reason to believe are good, decent men, should make a concerted effort to rise above these distractions and deliver their messages for the future of Virginia and the nation.
And reporters should realize that people who come out of the woodwork with negative ‘information’ about candidates in the heat of a campaign have less credibility than Paris Hilton at an A.A. meeting…
Looks like Salon is using the fabled LA Times technique of withholding a story until the time when it’s the most damaging to a candidate – in this instance, right after the debate. Whether Allen wins or not, let’s hope this shoddy journalistic “gotcha” strategy goes the way of the Dodo bird.
It really will have zero impact on voting. The margin(for african americans) runs about 90% voting democrat, 10% for the gop guy.
The 10% who vote gop, are not in complete denial about the ‘predominant’ attitude of whites during the 70′s. The implication that the gop guy is a racist, so therefore the democrats are not doesn’t carry over. Let’s face it, Byrd was a granddragon of the KKK, and the democrats have forgiven him, based on the assumption that the effects on the black vote are negligible.
The Webb quotes about women in the military hits a lot closer to home for me, more recent and equally insulting to a far larger demographic group-women, but will have equally littel impact.
The pursuit of this ‘story’ is tragic. It amounts to an act of ‘egging’ a car. No structural damage, inconvenient for the car owner, and telling of the type of catharsis that satisfies the ‘vandals’.
The african american community must be shaking their heads…one white guy trying to prove that another white guy used racial epithets in the 70′s as if it was uncommon, especially in the south. A sad bit of news for those who believe in the kinder nature of politcians-they speak in the jargon that makes them accepted-and in this country, racism was still the rage in the early 70′s, as sexism was in the latter half of the decade.
Allen still wins with 54%.
I do find the guy who was used as the primary source an interesting figure.
Is he the guy who tried to make money off the ‘tobacco free for life’ products?
Curious about how much he has donated to the DNC…
Salon didn’t go looking for him, he went looking for Salon. He never did so before, so I must ask why he is doing it now. Apparently Sidney blumenthal still has friends at the newsine.
[...] Earlier today, I blogged about Salon’s accusations from three ex-teammates of George Allen that he frequently used the ‘N’ word and other such crap we’ve come to associate with ‘oppo’ research (accompanied by the testimony of far more than three that they witnessed no such behavior and found him to be a praiseworthy individual). Allen’s camp has issued a detailed denial here. [...]
The electoral anecdote must have been a primary, though the author doesn’t mention that. I do wonder though, given the overwrought reaction to the voter ID initiative, how much this sort of reflexive certainty of party affiliation based on ethnicity benefits the Dems. As we know, without the nearly solid black support for Dems in big cities they could scarcely win any state or nationwide office. If this anomalous circumstance is really based on such flimsy assumptions it could evaporate at any given moment. Hopefully, that moment will be given in a few weeks.
If an Allen is a racist, that is an important issue, and not merely a distraction. Character counts.
…as does the character of the so – called “sources” for this story. In which case, they seem to have none.
jpe, come on – right or left, surely you can smell a smear job here…
Smear job? Allen wore a confedertae flag lapel pin, stuffed a deer head into a black family’s mailbox, called a person of Indian descent Macaca in front of a white-only crowd, and has fought against a day in honor of Martin Luther King and for a day honoring treasonous generals who fought for secession. You’re right, we should turn our head and pretend that because he’s a Republican, he is an honorable man.