“Mr. Macaca” joins team Fred…
From: Jonathan Martin at The Politico
Fred Thompson’s campaign will announce this morning their “National Campaign Leadership Team.”
Among the four chairs — former Sen. George Allen (Va.).
If you needed reminding, George Allen doomed his own Presidential bid (and in the process, gave his seat in the senate to the Dems) while running for re-election by calling a volunteer of his opponent Jim Webb “Macaca”.
From The Washington Post
At a campaign rally in southwest Virginia on Friday, Allen repeatedly called a volunteer for Democrat James Webb “macaca.” During the speech in Breaks, near the Kentucky border, Allen began by saying that he was “going to run this campaign on positive, constructive ideas” and then pointed at S.R. Sidarth in the crowd.
“This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. He’s with my opponent. He’s following us around everywhere. And it’s just great,” Allen said, as his supporters began to laugh. After saying that Webb was raising money in California with a “bunch of Hollywood movie moguls,” Allen said, “Let’s give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.” Allen then began talking about the “war on terror.”
Depending on how it is spelled, the word macaca could mean either a monkey that inhabits the Eastern Hemisphere or a town in South Africa. In some European cultures, macaca is also considered a racial slur against African immigrants, according to several Web sites that track ethnic slurs.
Here’s the YouTube
Justin Hart over at My Man Mitt, wrote a piece about Republicans attacking each other that referenced this blog post…and I’m attaching my response to this post and the reason why I brought this subject up in the first place!
The way I look at it on the “Mr. Macaca” post, is that had Allen just said that he was FOR Fred I wouldn’t have said a thing. But, Fred appointed him to his National Leadership Team. That means that he trusts him to lead his campaign in that capacity and shows character.
In the same sense that Governor Romney wants to clean house among Republicans in the fiscal sense. We also need to clean house in the moral sense as well.
Allen made the comment from his own mouth, and smiled while he did it. Sure, he lost his seat (and in turn lost the seat for the party too keep in mind). But, I think it’s way too soon to be seeing him on the National scene again. By allowing him to do so, we show as a party just how “insensitive” that we’re repeatedly characterized as.
Also, please check out the comments to the original Jonathan Martin piece first referenced in this post…sure some are probably from liberals, but I contend that plenty are from republicans too…
October 8th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
No doubt Allen acted like an idiot, but I was kind of hoping he would go for Romney. The sad fact is that Romney still lacks a major Southern Endorsement - something that would be enormously beneficial.
October 8th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Not me…
Like Romney’s attempted to “clean house” fiscally…I’d like to see some cleaning in terms of morals!
We’re 2 yrs post the “Macaca” incident…much too soon to have Allen on the National Stage in a Presidential campaign. I can not understand how if he truly wants to help the party he could even put himself out there this time. Something that huge doesn’t get forgotten easily.
October 8th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Actually, he doomed his re-election bid by mishandling the whole thing. Macaca wasn’t a racial insult in anyone’s mind until Democrats decided it would be a useful club (as they do to many Republicans).
I don’t have a problem with Sen. Allen beyond being a poor politician and losing us the Senate. However, I have no idea why you would want to put someone like that in a prominent position within your campaign.
October 8th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
What about Jim DeMint? He’s a big Southern endorsement, isn’t he?
October 8th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
I agree with Thomas that macca, was nothing at all and what doomed Allen was a poor campaign to counter the racial charges. Other than this, I think Allen or Santorum or other strong conservatives endorsement are a quiver in any candidates cap who is pursuing the GOP nomination.