Weekend wrapup, including more George Allen
1) Senator Akaka (D- Hawaii) beats Congessman Ed Case (D-Hawaii) for the Democratic senatorial primary, 55-45. Good for Hawaii, they will retain a great senator. Additionally, Mazie Hirono, the former Governor, won the tightly-contested Dem primary for Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District, the one that Case left to run for Senate. That one was a squeaker, with nine candidates!
2) The most trusted cabbie on Capitol Hill is a South Asian American by the name of Mohinder Singh. He drives around DNC staff, including Gov. Howard Dean! Plus, he is a Democrat, and he will soon receive citizenship.
3) Congressman Kline (R-Minnesota) has a District Director who lives back in the olden days. At a campaign stop, Mike Osskopp, Kline's director, tries to deride his boss' opponent's supporters for "driving all these Jap and German cars". I guess this is an underhanded way of saying that they are un-American. Unfortunately for Osskopp, it was all caught on tape. And by the way, when Consumer Reports picks ALL Japanese cars for its 2006 Top Ten list, all it means is that Kline challenger Colleen Rowley's supporters are smart and well-informed.
4) Yes, last but not least, Power and Politics' favorite hypocritical senator, Goerge Felix Allen, decides in an abrupt change-of-heart to embrace his Jewishness. . .
And use it as a shield against criticisms of racism.
Because Allen doesn't seem to know when and how to keep his mouth shut. According to a former football teammate, there was a highly freakish hunting incident:
Shelton said he also remembers a disturbing deer hunting trip with Allen on land that was owned by the family of Billy Lanahan, a wide receiver on the team. After they had killed a deer, Shelton said he remembers Allen asking Lanahan where the local black residents lived. Shelton said Allen then drove the three of them to that neighborhood with the severed head of the deer. "He proceeded to take the doe's head and stuff it into a mailbox," Shelton said.
Can you imagine being part of that poor family, and having your sister go get the mail, only to find a severed deer head?!?! Or how unsafe that family must have felt in their own home, intruded upon by some anonymous person who thought that such a prank was funny, when to them it was a signal that someone wanted them dead?
No, Senator George Allen, somehow I don't think that the Jewish community will embrace you. They know you to be a Johnny-come-lately, and I doubt that they are interested in defending someone who grew up idolizing the Confederate South and hanging out with KKK-type groups.
They know you are a man who in one breath dehumanizes a young college student and then says that beinig considered Jewish is like having "aspersions cast" upon your character, and then whips his two-faced head around to say that he "embraces his heritage." Then in the next breath:
"His Jewish heritage is "just an interesting nuance to my background," Allen said, adding: "I still had a ham sandwich for lunch. And my mother made great pork chops."" (WaPo)
No wonder the editor of the Forward, which "outed" Allen, has this to say:
Virginians are going to be sick to death of having their home state represented by a two-faced, racist, frat boy senator. People who aren't super political get sick of having their state portrayed in such a fashion. Allen's antics are like that of Dubya, and people are just waiting to show both of them the door.
Also, Dubya's "story", or what the public thinks of him, doesn't include someone who is as overtly racist as Allen - no nooses in the law office at least.
You know why Allen was so deathly scared of this story coming out? Because the day he owned up to his roots, he lost his base. The base that he made fun of Siddarth to, the base that he has emulated and cultivated his entire life. So now Allen has no base, and if you consider that 20% of the state is African American, and that Northern Virginia (the metropolitan, Democratic base) keeps electing their candidate to the Governorship, Allen has a very short political future ahead of him.
Welcome to the Real Virginia.
2) The most trusted cabbie on Capitol Hill is a South Asian American by the name of Mohinder Singh. He drives around DNC staff, including Gov. Howard Dean! Plus, he is a Democrat, and he will soon receive citizenship.
3) Congressman Kline (R-Minnesota) has a District Director who lives back in the olden days. At a campaign stop, Mike Osskopp, Kline's director, tries to deride his boss' opponent's supporters for "driving all these Jap and German cars". I guess this is an underhanded way of saying that they are un-American. Unfortunately for Osskopp, it was all caught on tape. And by the way, when Consumer Reports picks ALL Japanese cars for its 2006 Top Ten list, all it means is that Kline challenger Colleen Rowley's supporters are smart and well-informed.
4) Yes, last but not least, Power and Politics' favorite hypocritical senator, Goerge Felix Allen, decides in an abrupt change-of-heart to embrace his Jewishness. . .
And use it as a shield against criticisms of racism.
Because Allen doesn't seem to know when and how to keep his mouth shut. According to a former football teammate, there was a highly freakish hunting incident:
Shelton said he also remembers a disturbing deer hunting trip with Allen on land that was owned by the family of Billy Lanahan, a wide receiver on the team. After they had killed a deer, Shelton said he remembers Allen asking Lanahan where the local black residents lived. Shelton said Allen then drove the three of them to that neighborhood with the severed head of the deer. "He proceeded to take the doe's head and stuff it into a mailbox," Shelton said.
Can you imagine being part of that poor family, and having your sister go get the mail, only to find a severed deer head?!?! Or how unsafe that family must have felt in their own home, intruded upon by some anonymous person who thought that such a prank was funny, when to them it was a signal that someone wanted them dead?
No, Senator George Allen, somehow I don't think that the Jewish community will embrace you. They know you to be a Johnny-come-lately, and I doubt that they are interested in defending someone who grew up idolizing the Confederate South and hanging out with KKK-type groups.
They know you are a man who in one breath dehumanizes a young college student and then says that beinig considered Jewish is like having "aspersions cast" upon your character, and then whips his two-faced head around to say that he "embraces his heritage." Then in the next breath:
"His Jewish heritage is "just an interesting nuance to my background," Allen said, adding: "I still had a ham sandwich for lunch. And my mother made great pork chops."" (WaPo)
No wonder the editor of the Forward, which "outed" Allen, has this to say:
Some Jewish leaders said that Allen's angry reaction to the question about his Jewish heritage bothered them.
"He was visibly uncomfortable and called it an 'aspersion,' " said J. J. Goldberg, editor in chief of the Forward. "What is it that makes him so uncomfortable with it? It raises more questions about who the guy is."I have one answer for who this guy isn't: the next senator from Virginia.
Virginians are going to be sick to death of having their home state represented by a two-faced, racist, frat boy senator. People who aren't super political get sick of having their state portrayed in such a fashion. Allen's antics are like that of Dubya, and people are just waiting to show both of them the door.
Also, Dubya's "story", or what the public thinks of him, doesn't include someone who is as overtly racist as Allen - no nooses in the law office at least.
You know why Allen was so deathly scared of this story coming out? Because the day he owned up to his roots, he lost his base. The base that he made fun of Siddarth to, the base that he has emulated and cultivated his entire life. So now Allen has no base, and if you consider that 20% of the state is African American, and that Northern Virginia (the metropolitan, Democratic base) keeps electing their candidate to the Governorship, Allen has a very short political future ahead of him.
Welcome to the Real Virginia.
posted by powerpolitics @ 7:54 PM
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