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.
Why that would mean a republican growing a spine! Seeing Allens lame response, thats not gonna ever happen!
Some folks go out of their way to overspiritualize things.
I'm so sick of this cr-p. According to contemporary liberal "logic," attending Ole Miss game in the 1980s is identical to being a participant in the Nuremberg rally.
The things his sister said might be untrue or exaggerated...but if they are true, Allen is a sociopath who does not belong in any public office. Unfortunately, those are just the types of people who are drawn to seek political office, and DC already has an overabundance of them.
You live in Bizzaro NeoCon world.
New truck, new look, same ol legend.
And you my friend are afraid to lay the blame for dishonoring the memory of the confederates soldiers that died in the civil war where it belongs....
On the Democrats.
Why can't you do that one thing?
If you are going to defend that flag at the very least you should be able to point the finger at the democrats and say this is all your fault. That you can't reeks of cowardise.
Historical comparables like that are just too flawed. And the latter Dems of the New Deal era who did have strong attachments down South (execpt for their Marxist sub-groups) had pretty broad appeal nationwide. Which speaking of....so did the Democrats in 1860. Lincoln did not win with a majority (39%). The Democrats were not just Southern then. Anyhow....look at Goldwater versus LBJ (southerner) in 1964. So, Who's the Democrats in that one?
Anyone today who allies with South bashers over this flag is allying with the Left or RINOs. It's that simple....unlike controversial history which is a bit more complicated.
It reflects a built in bias against the South....for whatever reasons.....some personal.
Some brainwashed.
That mindset is why today we have however million illegals and their "latino brethren" marching to demand their privilege.
Were that not more or less ethnic sacred cows, they would be rounded up and tossed as they should be at some point.
This is a natural progression of our obsession with racial redress.
ack.. you have pants older than me? that's alot scarier than a confederate flag.
NAACP, SPLC, John Kerry, Howard Dean, Kerry's running mate (forgot his name). Strange bedfellows for a conservative.
That mindset is disregard for the Republic, same as in 1861.
Yep
Why is it that you cannot condemn the democrats for dishonoring the flag you hold so dear?
I mean it just makes me scratch my head and wonder what side you are really on.
You worry about me too much. Better to worry about which candidate is going to secure the borders in 2008.
If you were born after 1975, I guess I do!!!!
I really felt for the girl that asked me for ID in the convenience store last night when I bought a pack of cigarettes..........I'm more than old enough to be her mother....and those jeans are WAY older than she is!!!!!
I beleive they are called rinos and yankees.
I think maybe I knew him:
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.