Posted on 04/30/2006 7:41:33 PM PDT by Crackingham
Sen. George Allen, who has tried to reach out to minority voters in recent years, wore a Confederate flag pin on his shirt collar in a high-school yearbook photo, a national magazine reported yesterday. As a high school student in Palos Verdes, Calif., Allen was seen riding in or driving a Ford Mustang with either a Confederate flag license plate or Confederate flag imagery on the car, The New Republic quoted witnesses as saying.
The Virginia Republican, seeking re-election now and weighing a presidential bid in 2008, was to depart today to co-host a civil-rights history tour for members of Congress to Southside Virginia. The topic is to be progress toward racial reconciliation. Allen staff confirmed that the pin in his yearbook picture depicted a Confederate flag. An Allen aide told the magazine the senator didn't remember a Confederate flag on his Mustang but that it was possible.
As a high school student in California, "I generally bucked authority and the rebel flag was just a way to express that attitude," Allen said in a written statement to the magazine. "Life is a learning experience and I have learned quite a bit in the ensuing 36 years."
He went on to discuss his belief in equal opportunity, his learning from participating in a civil-rights history tour to Alabama several years ago and his proposed Senate legislation to aid minority colleges.
Harris Miller, one of two Democrats seeking the nomination to run against Allen, said yesterday that he found Allen's explanation "pretty disingenuous" considering that while he held state office, he had "a troubling record on minority issues."
Miller cited Allen's issuance while governor of a "highly divisive" Confederate history and heritage month proclamation and his vote, while a member of the House of Delegates, against a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
"We need leaders who will celebrate all that we have in common rather than things that divide us," Miller said.
The Confederate flag does not stand for what the media like to portray.
Only democrats are allowed to have ever flown a confederate flag. Clinton flew one in his governors office the entire time he was there.
WOW!!! This is series, almost as series as his neighbor in WV who was once a KKK big wig.
Who cares, the only thing that matters is how hard he is willing to come down on immigration.
Judas H Priest! When I was in college in the mid-60s, it was a national liberal arts college in the midwest, and we had southerners, along with students from all over this country. It was not uncommon for southerners to express their regional loyalty and pride by putting stars and bars on their room doors, or by saying "The South shall rise again". It was just good humor.
I sure hope these dumbasses attacking Allen over this stupid issue will be shown the door by the electorate.
George Allen ping.
I emailed the Miller campaign a link to James Webb's speech at the Confederate Memorial. We'll see how much play it gets...
Pence is a better choice.
I agree. However, a population of voting sheeple twelve times the size of Bush's last victory margin DOES see it that way.
Allen, it was nice to know you........
Criminy...........I'm about over this stuff and I'm a damnedyankee for crying out loud.
I've had a confederate flag belt buckle (on my hand tooled belt) since 1975.......and I still lived in NYC at the time, but spent my summers on the west coast of Florida, where I got both. There has been some wear and tear on both the belt and the buckle, but I still wear it, along with the same pair of jeans I first put it on...............
Pence isn't running for the U.S. Senate from Virginia. And as far as I know, neither Pence ~nor~ Allen have announced their intentions to run for higher office.
Try to keep up.
This is going to backfire on the RATS in Virginia. Especially if they nominate Webb. He's got a Confederate history of his own.
I read the original article (9 pages long) in The New Republic Online. The Confederate flag issue was probably the most controversial thing in the article, as the MSM will beat it to death.
To me, the next most controversial part of the article revolves around a book that his younger sister has written about the family. Without going into detail, she wrote some pretty uncomplimentary things about Allen.
It makes me angry that they drudge this stuff up. If everyone in the South was tarred and feathered for ever wearing a confederate flag, especially teenagers, there wouldn't be anyone left!
Even a high school friend of mine who is african-american wore a tattered old Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt... LOL we use to tease him about that, like "Skynyrd? Come on" .. you have to understand, this was late 80s and that music had run its course (until it came back as classic rock) ;)
But I remember clearly it had a confederate flag on it, as (I believe) all L.S. shirts did!!
But I digress. Enough with this lunacy over the confederate flag. As someone pointed out, it was still on state flags back then, for goodness sake - leave this guy alone..
ping
>This is going to backfire on the RATS in Virginia. <
This isn't aimed at the citizens of Virginia. Nobody will blink about Allen wearing the pin on his collar.
It's aimed at stopping his run for the Presidency.
Oh the Humanity.
Sheets Byrd actually wore the robes of the KKK, but...it is written off as a youthful indiscretion.
They have to be grandfathered in, and only Dems meet the criterion for that.
vaudine
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