Posted on 11/09/2006 6:54:40 AM PST by RightSideRedux
Here's the deal. George Allen lost this race himself. It really wasn't part of the wave... but that didn't help.
See below:
I saw that somewhere else also, Why would military personnel vote for a Rat when so many Rats have been calling our soldiers in Iraq murderers and rapists?
Because for a lot of them the race had nothing to do with party politics. They were voting for a former Navy Secretary (from the Reagan administration, of all places) who could credibly claim that the war was fouled up (reinforcing their view, BTW) and there needed to be a change in direction.
What you posted applies to all losing Pubbies, they didn't fight back hard.
Even a monkey knows better than to swing beyond his reach.
There are plenty of good Republicans around to replace Warner--Jo Ann Davis, Virgil Goode, Tom Davis, Frank Wolf, Bob Goodlatte...or perhaps an outsider such as Frank Beamer.
Because the candidate in question was the holder of the Navy Cross, Silver Star and a couple of Purple Hearts and he wasn't one of those who did that--he currently has a son in the Marine Corps now fighting in Iraq.
A lot of times it's not the original incident (using the term 'Macaca') that gets you into trouble, it's how you handle the resulting controversy that gets you into trouble (see Richard Nixon).
Then perhaps he should have avoided HANDING them the macaca incident.
I don't know what the hell Allen meant, but he came off like an arrogant bullying chucklehead, and it was clearly delivered as a juvenile epithet of some kind, lame on a school playground, and even more so in a senatorial campaign.
Tom Davis has definitely been "measuring for drapes" in that office.
The Navy Cross means a lot.
When I first heard it, I though he mispronounced macaw (the bird). When I looked it up, I realized he'd just stepped into it up to his knee.
Pointing at a thin darkskinned guy calling him macaca (and while on camera) was abjectly STUPID. To then tell the media he didn't know the meaning was foolish. To then say he'd once heard a member of his staff use the term was just icing on the Webb's cake. You can say I'm overdoing it, but folks down here are still very sensitive about race.
And the reporterette wasn't asking about Macaca. She was asking him during a televised debate why "he never told anyone his mother was a Jew". You weren't appalled at such a question? I'm Catholic and I was astonished.
So go gripe to Allen, because HE gave them the ammo.
As a senator, he should have smart enough to not let that happen.
I agree, he lost me with his stupid statements. If he only would have thought before he spoke.
Because military people dion't like phonies.
absolutely!
We already know the one (jibberish) word answer. I won't bother with writting it. Some people are just oafs.
He chummed the waters. Yes it was overblown, however, he's the one who said it, not the WaCompost. He ought to have been a highroader in all respects from the get go. He allowed the opposition to tweak him and that's all she wrote. Not cool enough. Even if he had said "and there is the opposition" left it at that and simply pointed to the guy, it still would have been dumb.
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