Larry Sabato: Fair-minded Professor or Partisan Hack?

Vanity | 9/28/06 | Freespirited

[freespirited]

A Powerline blog entry posted here this morning started me thinking about the origins of this week's hit pieces on Senator Allen. I would like to call attention to a few excerpts from this week's deluge.

NY Times 9/26/06: "Christopher Taylor, now an anthropology professor at the Birmingham campus of the University of Alabama, said he heard Mr. Allen use an epithet to describe African-Americans in the early 1980’s. ...[He] initially wrote of his recollections in a private e-mail message to a **colleague** after the “macaca” incident. The message was eventually **forwarded to The New York Times**"

According to Allens-A-team blog the colleague was UVA professor Fred Damon, who is married to a Dem activist. It sounds like Damon forwarded the message to others and a later recipient sent it to the Times.

NY Times: 9/27/06: "Mrs. Hawkins, who described herself as a rural Virginia housewife and an active Democrat, said in an interview Tuesday that she heard Mr. Allen use the slur repeatedly at a party on election night in 1976....She described her recollections in **an e-mail message forwarded** to The New York Times."

Hmmm. So who might receive an email from a Virginia housewife and/or Fred Damon at UVA and forward those emails to the NY Times? Keep reading for one possibility.

Rush Transcript of Sabato interview on Cable TV ( http://powerlineblog.com/archives/015397.php )

SABATO: ... What I have said and have made clear is that the individual who's came forward in the New York Times and other publications such as The New Republic contacted me quite some time ago, at least some in some cases and they made the allegation, they provided circumstances and evidence that is credible ...**And they were sent to news organizations. And it was up to the news organizations to confirm them to a level of comfortability necessary for publication. That is precisely what happened. That has appeared in the newspapers.**

In addition, Sabato's spokesman, Matt Smyth, wrote Powerline: "Larry is not a journalist, and as a result he does not investigate these types of stories; he simply was contacted by the sources and **forwarded them to members of the media.**"

Smyth added that Sabato refused to elaborate to Chris Matthews the other night due to assurances he had given reporters. "Larry was unable to reveal the extent of this during the Hardball interview because of his promise to the reporters who were breaking the rest of the story the next day." (Understood, Matt. Virginians wouldn't want their taxpayer-funded professors to be more concerned with scholarly considerations, like documenting their assertions, than kowtowing to the media.)

Well folks? Any thoughts on Virginia's Nattering Nabob of Nonpartisanship?

[bkepley]

Larry Sabato is whatever the show is looking for. I wouldn't be suprised if there really is no Larry Sabato just some actor playing a political science professional whenever one is needed. He never says anything interesting and never argues with the host.

[freespirited]

I wish I had his office phone number. Anybody got it.

(434) 243-8468

[onyx]

WHOA! Thanks for the information.

[Gunner9mm]

From www.libertycall.us

A political analyst turns partisan hack. Why is this coming up now?

A noted political scientist joined one of Sen. George Allen's former college football teammates in claiming the senator used a racial slur to refer to blacks in the early 1970s, a claim Allen dismisses as ''ludicrously false.''

Larry J. Sabato, one of Virginia's most-quoted political science professors and a classmate of Allen's in the early 1970s, said in a televised interview Monday that Allen used the epithet. – AP

What gives with Sabato? He is a well-respected political analyst, known for his unbiased and honest scrutiny of issues, campaigns, and candidates. Has he sold out? Has he succumbed to his own bias in favor of one candidate over the other? Why has he chosen this moment to recall an unfavorable incident regarding Senator George Allen – five weeks before the election?

It isn’t like Allen is an unknown newcomer to the political process. According to Allen’s biography, Allen ran for Congress in 1991 in a special election, then for governor in 1993, then for the Senate in 2000. Why didn’t Sabato bring up his accusation during one of those campaigns? Why is Sabato just now vaguely remembering an incident that happened thirty years ago? Is Sabato overtly or covertly trying to undermine Allen in order to help opponent James Webb? Did Webb’s campaign put Sabato up to this?

I don’t know what Sabato’s motivation is in trying to smear Allen with an alleged racial slur that might have occurred back when Sabato and Allen were in college. But this whole incident has the stench of gutter-level politics, the kind of attacks that evidence a severe lack of intelligent issues on which to promote your favorite candidate. I don’t know if Webb’s campaign put Sabato up to this, or even if Webb is aware of any deliberate attempt to smear Allen. But if Webb has any scruples, he will distance himself quickly and loudly from Sabato’s intemperate remarks.

And Sabato can say goodbye to his reputation as an honest, unbiased, respected political analyst. -- L

[nicollo]

The UVA Political Science Dept takes itself waay too seriously. Well, most PolySci depts do, but this one is especially aggressive.

PolySci attempts theoretical "models" of history and politics that can predict outcomes. It is on its face a conceit, as no one can "model" the world, much less the weather, climates, or the next election. Political Science is built on the idea that it can figure it all out.

That the Dept can be involved in actual REAL politics is too much temptation. Whoever this guy is, and whatever his motivation, just seeing his name in the news is reason enough.

[tennmountainman]

Thanks a bunch

[Dale 1]

Sabato usually provides fair commentary, but on his Allen indictment, he has become a partisan with a personal agenda. As far as I am concerned, once you compromise your integrity for personal gratification, you are history.

Goodbye Sabato.

[Morgan in Denver]

Probabaly.

I must.

I think I'll go nap now....

[OldFriend]

Sure didn't hurt Doris Kearns Goodwin. Caught plaigerizing and she's still the hero of the left. As long as you try to harm republicans you'll be welcome on the MSM cables.

[shezza]

Exactamundo. Yet the media will completely ignore this "boys will be boys" story about Webb, just as they did his admission that he, like everybody else in the south, had uttered the "n-word" (not to mention using it repeatedly as an author in his characters' dialogue). Nothing to see here...just move along.

If it doesn't hurt Allen, then it's not worth reporting. (The Drive-By Media's partisanship is breathtakingly obvious. Why sheeple are still snookered into actually believing them is a mystery.)

[103198]

Trust me, Sabato is part of a coordinated effort to slime Senator Allen. His actions and statements have not been honest or ethical. Look at the timing and coordination alone.

I will also suggest, although I can't find it in on-line, that Sabato is against the first question on this November's ballot in the Commonwealth - the so called "marriage amendment."

[shezza]

Why is Sabato just now vaguely remembering an incident that happened thirty years ago?

Sabato now admits that he never witnessed, or heard about, any such thing -- until an email he received a couple of weeks ago (which he forwarded to the media). His rationalization is that the "context" seems credible, therefore it MUST be true. What a maroon.

Is Sabato overtly or covertly trying to undermine Allen in order to help opponent James Webb?

Larry Sabato has long made it clear whom he supports, regardless of his "nonpartisan" moniker:

"Jim Webb is George Allen's worst nightmare: a war hero and a Reagan appointee who holds moderate positions," says Sabato. "Allen tries to project a Reagan aura, but Webb already has it." --(University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato, Time.com article 7 May 2006)

Sabato was also a former activist with the Virginia Democratic Party in the 1970s. Not exactly unbiased, do you think?

[x]

These guys want to be "playas" (players) in the political game. Take a look at Larry's bio at UVA's Center for Politics:

"Politics is a good thing!" … is the slogan of Dr. Larry J. Sabato (sabato@virginia.edu). According to the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Sabato is "probably the most quoted college professor in the land," while the Washington Post called him "the Mark McGwire of political analysts" and he is dubbed by Fox News Channel as "America's favorite political scientist." More recently, the Washingtonian magazine has called him the "Dr. Phil of American politics." As founder and director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, Dr. Sabato bridges the gap between the ivory tower and the real world on issues of critical importance to American democracy and the challenges facing our political process.

Mark McGwire or Dr. Phil? We report. You decide.