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*** George Allen: damaged goods?

Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) apologized Monday for what his opponent's campaign said were demeaning and insensitive comments the senator made to a 20-year-old volunteer of Indian descent.

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."

Ace eats some crow after a commenter adds:

It isn't made up racism. Macaca is used worldwide as a racial slur - thanks to the French in Africa. And guess what? Allen's mother is French and from Northern Africa, but it's entirely possible that he never heard the word in his life and this is just some very remarkable coincidence. Yeah, that's it.

Somehow I don't think that this is the last we'll hear of this event, perhaps with good reason.

By the way ... Rudy Giuliani? Not a big user of racial slurs.

Just sayin'.

*** Dean Esmay:

Indeed, I think Democrats could have beaten Bush in 2004, and would certainly be better off and less angry as a party now, if they had acted more like Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller and Dick Gephardt all along.

But I grow tired of trying to explain it to people who won't listen, or are (possibly) genetically incapable of getting it. They think vicious bashing and declaring the current leadership to be liars and crooks and incompetent (vicious, vicious, and more vicious) is the way to win. It's not. It's just a way to make people pessimistic and annoyed and weary and angry.

More to the point: the moment you call it "Bush's war" instead of "our war," you've already lost a huge swath of America, no matter how interested they might otherwise be in political change. Which is the real point of Cox's argument.

*** To wit: Brendan Loy quits the D's:

But regardless of all that, the hard reality is that the voters have spoken, and their message was loud and clear: there's no longer room for Joe Lieberman in the Democratic Party. And alas, tonight's result will reverberate through the November elections and into the 2008 presidential campaign. It's really much more than just a single primary in a single state; it's a shot across the bow of moderate Democrats everywhere. And so, whatever further ramifications this result might have, there's one thing it definitely means, one result that is officially cast in stone, as of today:

I am no longer a Democrat.

Do you feel it, Brendan? Do you feel the power of the dark side? Let the hate course through your veins!

Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-h-*cough*cough*cough* ... *cough*

In all seriousness, I'd hope it's a trend; not to weaken the Democratic Party, rather to eventually strengthen it by wresting the power from the hard leftist netroots making a play for the reins.

(Via AoS)

*** It's easy to be an armchair strategist from thousands of miles and exponential levels of comfort away, but early indicators point to a Hezbolllah emboldened by their "not-a-loss victory:"

At stake in the standoff was implementation of a crucial provision of the U.N. Security Council cease-fire that went into effect Monday. The accord called for quick deployment of 15,000 Lebanese army troops south of the Litani River along the border with Israel. They were to take up positions under the aegis of a reinforced contingent of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, to form a peacekeeping corps with a total strength of about 30,000.

Hezbollah's reluctance to get its men and arms out of the border zone reflected nervousness over the continuing presence of Israeli soldiers on Lebanese soil. But it also demonstrated the militant Shiite Muslim movement's increased assertiveness here after a war of more than a month during which it stood off the Israeli army while Lebanon's national army stood aside.

Over-under on number of months 'till the next invasion of Lebanon?

Posted by Bill at August 16, 2006 09:46 AM | TrackBack (1)

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