Devastating Editorial on "Allen's Career Ending Moment"

It+óGé¼Gäós been a few weeks, and now we can call it. Last month+óGé¼Gäós +óGé¼+ômacaca+óGé¼-¥ remark by Virginia Sen. George Allen was a +óGé¼+ôcareer ending moment.+óGé¼-¥ It sometimes happens like that in politics. A single moment, a single phrase, can sometimes make or break an election or an entire career.

After comparing Allen's remark to Michigan Gov. George Romney's career-ending 1967 remark that he had been "'brainwashed' by U.S. military officials when he toured Vietnam in the early 1970," Benton returns to Allen:

George Allen+óGé¼Gäós +óGé¼+ômacaca+óGé¼-¥ remark last month rises to the level of these rare cases. What made it shocking was that it came as a surprise to almost everyone.

This was not what anyone thought the tall, dignified, almost presidential Sen. Allen would stoop to. It was entirely out of character, at least the kind of character that most people understood Mr. Allen to have.

The remark was crude and degrading. And as if just to make sure that no one might excuse the senator for a slip of the tongue or unwitting indiscretion, he went on to further indict himself by suggesting the young, American born citizen of Indian descent, the object of his derision, somehow didn+óGé¼Gäót understand his own homeland. +óGé¼+ôWelcome to America,+óGé¼-¥ Allen said, taunting the young man.

In terms of politics, this was like finding that charismatic old Baton Rouge TV evangelist shacked up with a hooker in a cheap motel. It was a shock when it happened, something totally unexpected, an amazingly swift fall from grace.

So, what now?  Well, for those who said this "macaca" story would have no "legs," Benton has this to say:

It will not go away. It will intensify. The more time passes, the more contemptible the remark becomes for more people: the more intentional, the more revealing of an ugly inner mental map, the more vicious and racist it seems. It simply was not an innocent little miscue. It was much nastier, and the more the public has time to think about that, the more it is coming to that conclusion.

For those who think that George Allen's political career is still alive and kicking, Benton slams the door:

Forget completely any presidential ambitions that Allen might have had. He+óGé¼Gäós history on that front. With one word, he went from darling dark horse to zero, zilch, nada. There is simply no way that a party seeking a candidate who can draw from a sufficient cross-section of our increasingly-ethnically crazy quilt America would ever consider Allen. No way, not a chance.

Can we say, "O-V-E-R?"

Finally, for those who think the "macaca" incident kills Allen's Presidential ambitions, but still leaves him intact for 2006, Benton has this to say:

The incident has overnight transformed the Virginia race for the U.S. Senate. Before, despite shifting trends nationally, the incumbent Sen. Allen was considered a shoe-in for re-election this November. Upstart Democratic challenger James Webb couldn+óGé¼Gäót get anyone+óGé¼Gäós attention at the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee offices just across the Potomac. Webb wasn+óGé¼Gäót even the first choice of his own state party+óGé¼Gäós elites in the June primary. But all that has now changed dramatically.

In other words, Benton makes a devastingly persuasive case that George Allen's political career is done - stick a fork in it - after Allen's use of a nasty racial slur on a man of South Asian origin.  Now, as much as the right-wing bloggers whine about how unfair this all is, how it wasn't really (whine, whine) George Allen's fault, and how it's really (whine, whine, whine) the evil Raising Kaine that somehow blew it out of proportion (as if that's possible!), the issues simply isn't going away.  Why?  Because Allen's comments reinforce a pre-existing line of thinking, that Allen has had questionable views on racial issues, to put it mildly, for decades now. 

So, how does Allen get out of this?  Aside from attacking the messengers (the "liberal media," the bloggers, the Webb campaign, some people dressing up in silly banana and monkey costumes, etc.), what else can they do?  Tout Allen's record of (non)accomplishment in the Senate?  Talk about how he stole an amendment from another Senator, then tried to cover it up?  Try to explain his ownership of stock in Barr Laboratories, maker of the morning after pill, anatheam to Allen's religious right-wing allies?  Attack Jim Webb, heroic winner of the Navy Cross, Ronald Reagan's Navy Secretary, and a guy who USED to be on Allen's side - before Allen went off the ultra-right-wing deep end? 

Nope, not gonna work.  As Nicholas Benton writes, for George Allen, "macaca" was a "career-ending moment."  As far as most Democrats and non-Bush Republicans and Independents are concerned, that comes not a "moment" too soon.

Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign.  The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.

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