A SHITTY EXCUSE

According to Virginia Centrist, the Allen campaign has begun using the excuse that "caca" (slang for shit) is what Allen meant.

If George Allen thinks "shit" is an appropriate way to address the only minority in the crowd, then it's time for a resignation.

Update (NGB): The story keeps growing.  CNN has another story about the incident.  So far the Webb campaign couldn't have asked for a better response from the media.  Let's see if Allen's highly touted advisers can stop the bleeding.  They better stop it soon because this could have an even larger impact than NLS originally predicted.

Comments

Lets kick that Racist a-hole out of the Senate. I'm tired of being embarked by the thug that is my US Senator!

Embarrassed by the thug that is my US Senator, Excuse me.

[Not Don Rumsfeld]

Does shit happen? Yes, it does. Can we help it if shit happens? In my case, no. And I am being literal. Can I call I.Publius, Charles, Chadwick or others mohawka caca? Yes, but I might get calls from their mothers.

[John]

I used to think that NLS could provide some interesting election analysis. Now I think he is an irresponsible partisan hack who should apologize for fanning the flames of racial division for his own personal hangups. I have never seen such unfounded namecalling and hatred being promoted by someone who should know better.

[Virginia Centrist]

John -

I'm trying to find someone who wants to defend the shithead angle here. Your comments don't quite make the grade...try to focus on shitheads.

[furrycat]

Their excuses are getting lamer and lamer.

Allen speaks French and is something of a Francophile. There's no way he doesn't know macaca is used in French as a racial slur against people of North African descent -- i.e., people whose skin is darker than his.

Allen may publicly, or even privately, deny that he is a racist, but when the subconscious slips through like that, it's usually much more telling of the persons core beliefs.

[DukieDem]

John,
This story is all over the national news. I really don't think NLS is responsible for this story getting such widespread coverage. If you want to blame anyone, blame Senator Allen for his remarks.

The real Larry Sabato said it best "This may get blown out of proportion, but whose fault is that?"

[Jon]

So NLS, how much money you gotten this week from the Webb campaign?

[Virginia Centrist]

On the contrary, while the blame lies at Allen's feet, I think NLS has done a marvelous job promoting this story to the max with his high traffic blog.

It hasn't hurt that the Allen people keep giving us more ammunition.

[AllenisScrewed]

Jon,

You are going in the no voting vault along with Republitarian's Wife for stupid comments. I don't think NLS needs to be paid by Webb to show this story. Are you going to acccuse the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, the Daily Show, Virginia Pilot, RTD, and Roanoke Times of being in Webb's pocket too?

Allen is toast for 08. If he doesn't get his act together he'll be done for 06 too.

PS. All the Conservative bloggers who said Webb "wasn't ready for prime time", do you care to comment on your candidate's amatuer mistake? Or his campaign's horrific damage control? Can you manage to make it to your keyboard from the pool of your own tears?

Regardless of if this comment was racist, it shows that Allen may not be the disciplined, finely tuned campaigner you all thought he was. I guess bending over for Bush negativley affects your campaign skills.

[furrycat]

John, why don't you defend Allen's lame "shithead" excuse and stop trying to change the topic?

Allen hasn't apologized to Sidarth. Anyone with a sincere conscience would pick up a phone and make a direct apology to Sidarth. Not so for Allen.

[John]

Just because the liberal news media says something doesnt make it true. I never heard the term macaca before and I doubt that 99% of the American people or Senator Allen have ever heard it before.

All you are doing is spreading a racist term around in your desire to destroy someone's political career.

Virginians believe in acting like gentlemen in politics. And I hardly think this discussion has lived up to the standards of what we should expect here.

Please leave your bitterness and hatred out of politics and examine your own self before casting stones.

THIS MAKES TOTAL SENSE!

CACA is shit!

The Mu was Allen trying to make it sound Muslim like Muhammad.

Then he leads on video into the "War on Terror"

HE WAS CALLING THE GUY "MUSLIM SHIT"!!!!!!!

[Not Joan Baker Washburn]

This is awesome. Caca, that's what mommies call baby poop, "now little Johnnie mommy said please don't play with your caca."

[Robb]

"Virginians believe in acting like gentlemen in politics."

How gentlemanly has George Allen behaved? Does he live up to your standards, John?

[plunge]

"Just because the liberal news media says something doesnt make it true. I never heard the term macaca before and I doubt that 99% of the American people or Senator Allen have ever heard it before."

That's exactly the point. This is exactly what's so damning to Allen: because the slur is so obscure that it can't be a coincidence he's one of the very few people that has a background that would have had him know what it means.

[TMU]

John:

So, Allen was gentlemanly? That's an interesting interpretation.

I agree that Allen could have picked up the darned phone and called the kid to apologize. But that would require balls and a certain level of decency.

You all are unhinged. Take a breath and look outside. It's a beautiful day in Virginia.

[Jon]

Allenisscrewed - come on Jim, shouldn't you be out campaigning instead of writing on blogs? Maybe this is why you are 20 points down, oh i'm sorry, 18...my bad....

[Not Ted Stevens]

Hmm...
What's all this ruckus!!!
Who awoke me from sleep in my system of tubes...
That young go-getter Allen you say...
Called a young indian fella a Mo-ca-ca ya say...
Why we have Mocaca indians up here for sure, I believe they and the eskimos live peacefully together, right next to the Mopupu tribe.
Well..until they're kicked off so that I can build our new oilfield/military base/theme park/golf course
I've thoughtfully named it
The Emporer Ted Stevens National Monument and Rest Stop Park and Nature Preserve

I'm off to take the tubes to work,
NDR, I hope we're still on for shuttlecock

Emporer Ted Stevens
"Moving Enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material, to Alaska every day."

[AllenisScrewed]

Well it was actually 16 'shithead'. And no other poll had Webb anywhere near that far away.

[Next GOP Blogger's Spin]

Caca is a good thing! I eat it every day for breakfast. It's great on mashed potatoes and even better mixed in with milk and icecream. You liberal extremists would know that if you visited the real america.

A Month or so ago a conservative blogger commented that when the Webb campaign was a little stuck in the mud, hearing the Webbies spin that things were great sounded like the guy at the end of Animal House at the parade screaming "All is Well! All is Well!"

All is Well is now Allen's campaign slogan.

[Jon]

AllenisScrewed -

Yikes, easy on the coffee there young lad. I truly am sorry, you are right, it was 16 points. I was TOTALLY EXAGGERATING and STRETCHING there with 18 points. Mabye this is why Dems lose just about every election. No sense of the big picture and way way way too emotional!

Ano 3:43 you are exactly right. Its a beautiful day, lets enjoy it!!

[Not Don Rumsfeld]

NTS we are airlifting massive amounts of caca to your state at this moment. Consider it a gentlemanly gift.

Allen has Webb beat 4 to 1 in money and the best you can do is bitch about the Webb campaign buying a $250 ad.

For christ's sake, Ben would sell you the whole damned thing for 50,000 and you'd have no worries and not a dent in your pocket.

Stop your pissing and moaning and do something proactive. The more the Allen bitches blather the better this gets!!!!

[Not Ted Stevens]

NDR

Thanks for the enormous amounts of material, enormous amonunts of material...
Although...
It's not like a big truck right?

Emp. T.S.
"Moving Enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material, to Alaska every day."

[LAS]

If you think somebody is a sh*thead and you wish to express that thought aloud, why not just call him a "sh*thead" in good ol' American? Why choose to express the thought in puerile, foreign, baby-talk? Look, Bush called a reporter a "major league a**hole" and people loved him for it. Cheney told a sitting Senator to go f8ck himself and people roared with approval. What's wrong with a little macho, swaggering bravado against a young and powerless volunteer who looks foreign even if he isn't? As long as it's in English!

BTW, imagine the kinds of things he says when the cameras AREN'T rolling!

Seriously, this was all about that young man's race. Allen found a way to say "sand n-word" without actually saying it in English. And calling his a "sh*thead" plays a lot better than THAT. But it is too much of a coincidence that Allen's mother is French Tunisian AND this is a term commonly used in that part of the world.

[Not Don Rumsfeld]

NTS- no, it comes in tubes. Giant Caca Tubes (GCT) that look like a tube like pipeline.

[TMU]

Jon:

Just about every election?

I'm sorry, Governor Kaine's on line two, for you. He says something about enjoying the view from the Governor's Mansion.

[Jon]

TMU - yes, "just about every election". This language would imply not every election, but a majority, would it not? But hey I give Kaine credit, but blame Kilgore more for losing it. And although I wasn't explicit, was more or less talking nationally, but kudos for pointing it out.

[TMU]

Boy, winning two presidential elections with margins JUST over 50% really make you feel dynastic. "Just about every" implies a bare majority to you? It's great when y'all give us a peek into the way some of your minds work. Or don't work. We should be thanking GA for the same opportunity.

Look, whether he knew that macaca was specifically a racial slur in europe, or in french is not really pertinent, surely he knew that it was a kind of monkey, most people do know that. Surely calling someone a monkey is a racial slur that has trancended borders and languages. Surely the fact that he was at least in some part aware is evidenced by the fact that out of all the words he could have addressed the young man by he chose that one.

[FortyFour]

I think winning 3 out of the last 4 statewide elections is pretty close to "just about every" election.

[TMU]

Um, Warner and Kaine would be two in a row at the top. Where's your three out of four?

[TMU]

Um, Warner and Kaine would be two in a row at the top. Where's your three out of four?

[TMU]

Something odd happened on that one . . . apologies for the double post.

Oh, let me Allenize it:

"If anyone was offended by my double post, I apologize. My conduct, of course, was beyond reproach, but if my political enemies are seeking to make hay from my double post, and if anyone's pretending to be offended, I guess I sort of apologize."

[charles]

last first : "he knew it was a monkey, most people at least know that" -- give me a break.

If you are going to have a webbasm, you should at least get the story straight. Allen did NOT say anything new. An UNNAMED "source" reported this piece of information. Further, that source did NOT say that Allen was trying to say the kid was "caca". The unnamed source said that someone IN THE CAMPAIGN nicknamed the kid "mohawk-caca" because of his crappy hair and because he was annoying to them.

That unnamed source SPECULATES that Allen overheard the staff using that name, and so when he was pointing out the young man he remembered that name and used it. The unnamed source says Allen had nothing to do with the formation of the name, nor would he have known that source.

I have no idea if this unnamed source is actually IN the allen camp, but I will point out that this "latest story" is almost exactly what I guessed was the cause of this back when I first posted in NLS -- that some staffers made up a name for the kid, that Allen overheard it, and then when Allen said "that kid in the yellow shirt", Allen felt he should use the guy's name, and dragged out the name he remembered his staff using.

I'm not saying that's what happened, but it's as good an explanation, better in fact, than what I see here about Allen wanting to turn on his base by using the proper name for a genus of monkey because he thought it sounded a little like a french racial slur he remembered his mother singing to him at night growing up :-)

The same newspaper story that gave this anonymous "source" information also states that Allen has apologized several times, both to the man and to the public.

Is the guy actually saying Allen has NOT apologized to him? I don't know.

I never use the guy's name, because I'm not sure I know his full name, and people here keep spelling it different ways like it doesn't matter.

[Not Don Rumsfeld]

Charles and Chad and I.Pub, good news. We have made some changes to Army enlistment standards and now age- be you 44 and living in your mother's basement - or 15 and playing with your mother's computer, and physical condition and mental state are no barrier to your entry. We are beefing up security in Baghdad and you are more than welcome to join our new 101st fighting cheetos keyboard division. You are going to have a dickens of a time over there.

[Outside Observer]

Laughing my ass off. Not Ted Stevens is my new favorite NLS commenter! Keep it up! :)

[Not Don Rumsfeld]

He's really only a model. A series of tubes, if you will, while I am much more charming.

[NotFrenchCheese]

The "mohawk" defense didn't fly! So, they thought the we all thought "shithead" was funny defense would fly. Then they thought if we actually saw the video, we get all warm and fuzzy about George Allen. These people are clueless.

Other than convincing me that George Allen really is a racist, it also convinced me he's really not the brighest bulb and he's surrounded by even duller bulbs.

There are so many Republicans that come to mind that would make great Senators.

This incident is shameful.

[thaddaeus toad]

Charles 5:52
That explanation sure took a long time to make. The truth takes but a second to state: George Allen is a bigot.

[FortyFour]

The last 4 winners in statewide races -

Warner US Senate (R)
Kaine Governor (D)
Bolling Lt. Gov. (R)
McDonnell (R)

[Fan of Integrity]

Last 5 winners:
Warner US Senate (R)
Kaine Governor (D)
Bolling Lt. Gov. (R)
McDonnell (R)
Webb (D)

[thegools]

I am frankly surprised that this story has got the play that it has in the press. I did not think that Allen would get it this bad....it couldn't have happened to a better guy.

(Let them them keep picking at the wound until they hit an artery....or two)