George Allen's CNN Performance

By: aes
Published On: 9/21/2006 7:04:54 PM

Appearing on CNNGÇÖs GÇ£Situation RoomGÇ¥ this evening, George Felix Allen put on quite a performance! He announced that with his newly discovered Jewish heritage, he will now dedicate his life to promoting tolerance, racial and ethnic sensitivity.

Personally, I believe Felix is digging a deeper hole for himself. He is not believable. He is not sincere. I find it disgraceful that he now uses his elderly mother just as he has used Nancy Reagan.

The discovery and disclosure of his heritage is not the issue. The issue is his past denials. Poor Felix, how will he now deal with his GÇ£good ole boyGÇ¥ persona and his racist past?


Comments



IMHO (TurnVirginiaBlue - 9/21/2006 8:19:22 PM)
I think the blogosphere should drop it.  I think Webb is going to blow away Allen on almost every issue because Allen is a Corporate Lobbyists' wet dream.

And that's what the American people are really sick of.

Ya know, I think Webb is getting the name recognition and while I found that interview to be sappy as hell...

I honestly think the blogs would help Webb much more by writing diaries on the issues and how Webb is so damn superior, as a leader and as a Senator...on the issues America cares about.

The minute you focus in on anything from jobs to corruption to Iraq...Webb just blows Allen right out of the water, I mean it's obvious, whereas focusing in on yet another ...I don't know topic....I think it could actually backfire even though Webb has clearly disowned any of the blogosphere's coverage on this issue.

Webb has recently clearly gotten his stride and I think bringing more focus to any one of those videos of him talking is going to push it way over the edge to a Webb Win.



Agreed... (Loudoun County Dem - 9/21/2006 8:44:59 PM)
I find it disgraceful that he now uses his elderly mother just as he has used Nancy Reagan.

Are there any other 80 something year old skirts for Allen to hide behind?



My 2 ¢ (Kathy Gerber - 9/21/2006 9:18:34 PM)
One of the more interesting books on survivors is Helen Fremont's After Long Silence

Ms. Fremont is a lesbian, and as amazon reviewer Daniel W. Krueger writes

As the son of a survivor, I read this book differently than most. I understand the author's parents need for silence. I also understand the destructiveness of it on the survivors and their children. Ms. Fremont has created a wonderful framework for the telling of HER story.

Those who read this just for the story of her parents are missing the point of writing the book. The silence of her parents - like many survivors of the Shoa - cannot be completely broken, so admittedly the author `fills in' or `imagines' details so painful that her parents are unable or unwilling to remember.

This novel is an exploration into the author's movement OUT OF SILENCE. She skillfully represents this personal growth by sharing with the reader her journey into her family's and her own past. It is during this journey as she questions why her parents kept so silent that she puts herself to the ultimate test and breaks her own conspiracy of silence to her parents and family about her sexual orientation. Bravely she works to stop all the silences of her family - silence of Shoa experiences, silences of avoiding one's true identity - so that they may no longer live in the shadow that silence casts.

The book is to be applauded as a journey to self truth. A journey we are always on and must always work at.

Read the book as a tool to remove your own silences.

Like many others, Mr. Allen's mother has lived with the concern that should her true identity become well known there will be a price to be paid.  With his commitment, will George Allen continue to stand with those who exclude the GLBT community from the table?  He can say to his mother, "Mom, it's OK."  Does he extend his new found tolerance and sensitivity to all Virginians or is it circumscribed? 

TurnVirginiaBlue, for me this is an issue.  The inequities and fear that many of us live with daily are very real.  Inclusion means more, much more, than embracing the particular demographic groups to which one belongs or suddenly finds themselves.  An impassioned argumentum ad misericordiam for a particular tolerance does not change that.

And how would this have played out if George Allen had learned instead that his mother's private life had been similar to that of Eleanor Roosevelt?  Would he have been having an emotional heart to heart with Wolf Blitzer about it, saying that politics does not matter? 

One can only wonder. Or not.