In other news......

Column by Not Gretchen Bulova:

In other news, Virginia is still buzzing about George Allen's sordid past (and present).  Newspapers in key areas of the state continue to cover his history.  The Virginian Pilot covers it twice today, here and here.  In the 2nd link, Shaun Kenney tries to argue that Allen couldn't be bad because Susan Allen wouldn't marry a bad guy.  Come on, that is a ridiculous argument.  Good women marry bad men all the time, just because she is a splendid person, doesn't mean he is.  There a tons of great women who marry men who cheat.  Allen just happens to be a racist, not a cheater. 

The Daily Press also covers the issue again this morning. 

The Times paper in NOVA is on the scene once again.

Oh I forgot to mention how the Republicans want Democrats to focus on other issues besides Allen's racism.  Did I forget to mention the disaster that is Iraq?  That Iraqi's want us out?  I guess Allen has little left to run on.  Oh wait, I forgot, he still has the bigotry and hate that is the Marriage Amendment. 

Comments

A key question is whether Jarding or Saunders personally know Dr. Shelton.

[UVA08]

"Oh I forgot to mention how the Republicans want Democrats to focus on other issues besides Allen's racism..."

This phrase annoys me so much. "Focus on the issues" they say. First of all this is coming from a party that compared a war veteran to Osama Bin Laden. Secondly, it would have been an issue if Allen never called SR Siddarth a racial slur on camera. Thirdly, Webb is completely ignoring this and only talking about other issues. Fourth, RACISM IS A HUGE ISSUE. I do not want a racist jerk representing me in the Senate. When you or one of your family members become the victim of a racially motivated attack THEN you come back here and tell me it's not an issue.

This is Macaca gate2. Unbelieveable that some public servant could be this ignorant.

[not gretchen bulova]

Agreed UVA08. I was just restating what we've been hearing on the blogosphere. Webb has stayed on message, while the media and blogs do his work for him. Perfect situation.

[UVA08]

I know NGB.... it was directed at the people who keep coming on here saying its not an issue. Republitarian, Marco, Poli-C, just to name a few.

[TMU]

God bless Shaun Kenney, but that's one of the dumbest things ever written in English. Uh, Shaun, Britney Spears married K-Fed. Think they have deep insight into each other's souls? Me, neither.

As noted above, fine women marry jerks every day. My wife tells me so all the time, something about me being an illustrative example. The wonders of Susan Allen have NOTHING to do with whether her husband has dropped an n-bomber (or ninety) in his life.

[Doug]

Mine too TMU.

According to reports by the AP and the RTD, Webb won't deny that he, too, used the n-word, saying that everyone who grew up in the south used it at one time or another.

Webb also admitted he used it as dialogue in at least one of his novels.

Meanwhile, Larry Sabato now says he didn't hear Allen use the slur, but only heard about it from others.

Finally, Webb discounts the Allen camp's charges that the slur issue is being promoted by Webb campaign staffer Lowell Feld, noting that Feld's RK blog is "independent" and he doesn't read Raising Kaine.

Folks, I would suggest it is time to leave this story alone and let the MSM carry it along.

Otherwise, Webb's past comments may also become an issue and the voters of Virginia will be faced with two candidates who need their mouthes washed out with soap.

Webb can win on the issues. But the issues will never surface in this campaign as long as the mud continues to fly.

True, Allen has been knocked off message by these startling revelations, but remember that nothing is more fierce that an animal that has been cornered.

The Webb campaign manipulation of Dr. Shelton will become of huge issue. If Shelton is a contact of Jarding and Saunders, as it appears, this election is over. Just think of CBS News and the fabricated memo.

Shelton was in the National Guard with George Bush Jr.

Coincidence?

[TMU]

Where's the evidence that Shelton is a "contact" of Jarding/Saunders? Hello?

Oh, and that cornered animal . . . is it a deer or a turtle?

[Bubby]

I think this was the proper url for the first link:
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=111702&ran=99178

[not gretchen bulova]

Thanks bubby, I'll fix it in a few.

What about Webb's refusal to say he never used the n-word?

I support Webb, but now I am beginning to think he is a racist and a sexist, too.

His comments about affirmative action and women in the military had me wondering. His comment that he might have also used the n-word has me thinking real hard.

Maybe I will just sit this one out on November 7.

When the truth comes out about Shelton, TMU's ass will be painted white and running like a deer.

[Dannyboy]

The media isn't picking up on the Webb comments because it isn't a story. Basically, he said "I wrote the word as a character once in a book." That's honesty thats hard to turn into controversy. Until the Allen Campaign can dig up somebody to accuse Webb, the story will stay focused on them. And you can bet the Webb team has the proper response worked out today, and our ready to clarify the stance: "He's never used it outside of his books."

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149190830866
With all that's been going on, people seem to have missed this.

[Doug]

10:28- "nice try, George"

[Dannyboy]

anon 10:28-
I have a hard time believing you're a Webb supporter. Just a hunch, but I get the idea that you're full of it. After all, it's an anon post.

When did Saunders and Jarding first contact Shelton? That is the question.

When? What did they tell him? Did Jarding and Saunders push this story with Salon.com?

These are the questions that will be answered in the next few days.

[TMU]

The various anons:

I'll be right here. Feel free to bring a hot dish for the buffet.

Oh, any thoughts on the next dumb thing that Allen says? We've got a pool going.

Bring forth Saunders and Jarding to answer questions. Do they know Dr. Shelton? Yes or No.

[TMU]

So . . . you have no evidence one way or the other? You're just making some kind of anonymous free-lance demand in the ozone?

Ah, I love the smell of fear.

[Doug]

Heh- I miss the anons pushing Mud cat planting the Jewish ancestry question on Peggy Fox.

Do the right wing websites get no traffic at all these days?

TMU:
Wait, watch, and learn. Get your depends ready.

[TMU]

If GA is constipated this morning, some clown from the Z-Team will blame it on Jarding and Saunders, and not on the venison/turtle stew Allen had for dinner last night.

[Doug]

I had Gator tail the other night. I wonder what ethnic group that puts me in?

[TMU]

Anon 10:45:

You know, you should at least adopt a consistent nym, so you can lord it over us all when your mysterious predictions come to pass. What good is being prescient if nobody know it?

I've been watching and learning. I've been watching your candidate jump like a frog on a hot plate. And I've been learning what it takes for an incumbent Senator from a semi-red state to magically shrink before my very eyes.

[Dannyboy]

"But I have never used it as a racial epithet"
-Jim Webb

That pretty much sums it up, I think. He wrote it down in his books, but has never used it in a derogatory manner.

[Bambi]

Why, George, why?

TMU:
With all the watching you've been doing, you'll soon be doing something else -- changing your depends when this Shelton/John Edwards/Jarding/Saunders connection blows up in your face.

[Bubby]

"I have never issued a racial or ethnic slur." James Webb

http://tinyurl.com/geko5

Any more non-issues from the Allenites?

Wanna move on to: Iraq? War on Terror? Torture? George Allen's Senate record?

[Fan of Integrity]

Anon 10:57
I guess when you have a racist candidate, who isn't all that bright, that's all you can pin your hopes on...

[TMU]

Anon 10:57.

You're beginning to sound like a small, small, child telling somebody that his big brother will beat him up when he gets home.

When you've got something to sell, come back. Right now, it's just lip, and a candidate whose flop sweat is flowing like the Nile.

TMU:

Who the F are you to talk to me like that? Are you the god father of the internet? Or, just some knuckle head who likes to intimidate others?

When this story breaks, I'll be calling you my bitch.

[Fan of Integrity]

Anon 10:57, and 11:05 etc etc

You win the College Republican Maturity contest for today!

[TMU]

Nobody's trying to intimidate anybody.

Oh, and how will I know it's YOU, since you're so stubbornly anon? Will you bring candy and flowers when you call me your bitch?
Will the scent of deer blood tip me off?

Heh.

Turnabout is a bitch, isn't it?

TMU:

Run along now to ask Saunders and Jarding if they know Dr. Shelton. When you find out the answer, we can then talk about candy and flowers.

[TMU]

Lots of things in are a bitch.

Some people are LITTLE bitches.

Since you want to be anon, and predictions appear to be your specialty, I will name you, "Kreskin."

See ya around the ranch, Kreskin! Let's go deer-huntin' and mailbox stuffin' sometime!

"But I have never used it as a racial epithet"

Can't wait for some of Webb's old marine buddies to come forward & call bullshit on this one. That'll be sweet.

[Doug]

The anons are one of the three commenters on allens a team site- i.pub most likely. They are chittering about it if you can stand going there.

[Bubby]

Man, every time you knuckledraggers get a chance to change the topic...you don't. Losers.

TMU:

That's Mr. Kreskin to you, biatch. Now run along and when you have a firm denial from Jarding and Saunders we will then talk because this story is going to break. Maybe you should advise them that it would be better to come clean now. Aren't you the one who always stresses the importance of coming clean?

[Virginia Centrist]

To whoever the anon is on here:

I don't care if Shelton is best friends with Santa Clause. George Allen uses the N-word like they're no tomorrow.

Now...do you want to deny that?

[A big Skins fan]

Allen called Larry Brown a "Shifty nigga"? What a piece of garbage Larry Brown made his father.

This war reported today:

Recalling remarks about its star running back, Larry Brown, Mrs. Hawkins said that Mr. Allen "started in effect bad-mouthing him, saying what a shiftless you-know-what" he was.

She said she remembered the conversation because she was a big fan of the team and was shocked. She said Mr. Allen’s statement on Monday was "just plain a lie."

A big skins fan:

uh, ya. Another partisan Democrat with motive.

Webb uses the N-word like there's no tomorrow.

Now...do you want to deny that?

Virginia Centrist, do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?

[Doug]

or it's marco or jim:

"
Jim Rittinger Says: September 27th, 2006 at September 27, 2006 - 11:05 am
There is a palpable sense of panic coming from the Webbies and their cronies at RK/Daily Kos. Mrs. Shelton just inadvertently took a sledgehammer to their dirty tricks campaign and with Webb basically admitting that he used the n-word, it looks as though the potential blowback could be monsoon-like.
"

A palpable sense of panic. I thought I had eaten something bad this morning, but it may be my panic.

[Fan of Integrity]

Anon 11:15 -
uh, ya - another College Repub who can't defend their candidate, so they act like a cornered dog. Good job! haha

Look! I'm anonymous! Marco killed my dog and i.pub just got arrested for stealing from 7/11!

[Doug]

That was me being anonymous. Creepy and stealthy, no?

[Bruno]

Larry Sabato says "MAKE MY DAY", please unlease an attack on Dr. Shelton.

[Fan of Integrity]

Funny, Doug : )

Instructors must not take roll every day at Longwood or VCU. You guys sure skip class a lot. Hope you're getting notes from a better student.

Bruno:
Sabato has already recanted his statements on Monday. His credibility is shot on this issue. He then stated that he heard reliable "testimony."

What testimony did he here? Testimony is a sworn statement under oath.

He's just full of bovine scathology on this onel.

[not gretchen bulova]

On Monday Sabato never once said he heard Allen say the word, just that he knows he said it. Nothing has changed.

The sad thing is this isn't an isolated incident.

[Fan of Integrity]

Sabato seemed to have heard from many reliable sources who are afraid to publicize their names, due to the nastiness that they know as George Allen.

Apparantly he has a vindictive and mean streak a mile wide, which instills fear for their jobs and possibly their mailboxes (and any live deer in the area).

[lester]

how discussing the use of racial slur helps Allen is beyond me. Allen is already on tape using a racial slur "macaca".
Now Allen is praying no one has him on tape using the N word.

just waht did Sabato racant?

Think George uses a machine gun when he pastes deer?

[Doug]

dailykos just headlined the deer head story and quoted NLS. That doesn't sound like panic, but I am sort of slow. Maybe anonymous student, marco or i.cheeto can explain it to me.

When someone recants, anything else on that topic is subject to serious question.

I think if the Allen campaign keeps attacking the people making the charges and at Sabato -- that just might force him to hold a press conference with the people making the charges standing with him. I can just see that happening. I wonder if that's the big thing coming.

[Fan of Integrity]

He didn't recant a thing.

[Fan of Integrity]

Anon 11:40

I think he uses his favorite noose as a lasso and tries to bring the deer down that way.

And then, when he remembers that he's an LA surfer boy, not a (Texas?) cowboy, he whips out a machine gun and whacks that sucker.

[Doug]

oops:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/9/27/11324/8362

http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=41592

A former college classmate of George Allen and Ken Shelton, the North Carolina radiologist who says Allen regularly used the N-word in the 1970s and once stuck the head of a deer in the mailbox of a black family, has come forward to corroborate one of Shelton's accusations.

"I'm not out to get George Allen," says George Beam, a 53 year-old technical manager in the nuclear industry, who lives in Forest, Virginia. "I just think Kenny Shelton is a fine, upstanding person, and I know he is telling the truth."

Beam was roommates with Billy Lanahan, now deceased, who, along with Allen and Shelton, was the third member of the now infamous hunting party. According to Beam, Lanahan later told him the bizarre story of the three men stuffing the deer head into a mailbox. He says Lanahan did not tell him that the prank had any racial overtones.

"Some time drinking a beer at U Heights," Beam says, referring to the campus housing complex where Beam, Lanahan, and Allen all lived, "Lanahan told me they went hunting and killed a deer. All I know is they cut off a deer head and stuck it in someone's mailbox...He didn't say it was racial -- just said they stuck it in a mailbox as a prank."

[Bruno]

Again "Anon" how is discussing the use of a racial slur good for Sen Allen?

90% of Virginians believe "Macaca" is a racial slur. 100% of Virginians have seen the tape of Allen calling that guy a "macaca".

[Deer]

I hear George Beam is mudcat's love child.

[Dannyboy]

Ah, the return of Republican tough talk. But of course, defending Allen is a ridiculous notion. They simply try to turn the attack on Webb.

[Bubby]

Riddle me this? How can I being working for Jim Webb when the checks go from me...to him?

[Not Pam Anderson]

Ooh, ooh! Pick me !!!!

You like Jim Webb, and want to see more of his commercials on TV?

Bubby's another fat cat special interest group.

[Doug]

Bubby- my job with Webb is costing me money every month. I think I may be doing something wrong.

Here's the deal. The fact that Allen bullied, humiliated, and used a racial epithet in a public setting, with a video camera rolling --- means the guy is fairly comfortable with that side of himself. If he's done it once, he's done it elsewhere. That's how I see it. My Republican friend keeps asking me, he's isn't that stupid, is he?

[Doug]

I think the power of George Beam just scared off all our anonymous posters. Damn.

[Bubby]

Pam, sit on your hands and let someone else have a chance.

Where is that fruitcake Marco?

Will Webb take the lead in next poll?

[not gretchen bulova]

He has retreated to the confounds of Riley's a-team blog. Home to 7 group thinking Republicans.

On Monday, Sabato quibbled because he implied that he had heard him say the N word. On Tuesday, he then stated that he heard reliable testimony from fellow students. In essence, he is only relaying hearsay.

And, his choice of the word "testimony" is rediculous. There's no testimony there.

It is so easy for someone to come forward and put words into the mouth of a dead man.

[TMU]

12:47:

Talk about your quibbling. So, Sabato shouldn't have used the word "testimony" because the other folks weren't under oath?

OK, I'll buy that. Let's call them, "More folks joining the increasing large crowd of witnesses to GA's use of the n-bomb and similar endearments."

Is that better?

Testimony is turn of phrase he used to suggest that there was some sort of validity and perhaps,judicial imprimitur, to the simple fact he was only repeating what others told him.

In other words, he was spreading gossip. Nothing more. Nothing less.

[Bruno]

Again "Anon" does it serve Sen Allen to be discussing racial slurs at all? Why do you Allenists keep talking about racial slurs. 90% of Virginians have seen the "Macaca" tape and believe it is a racial slur. Why do you want to keep that image of Sen Allen in everyones mind.

Sabato called Sen allen a liar and he stands behind that statement. He recanted nothing is it time for Sen allen to sue Sabato for liable?

I think its a big Republican mistake to attack Larry Sabato. Some Republican spokesman on MSNBC just did.

I think Sabato just might surprise them if they push him too far.

[John McCain]

I plead the 5th I have nothing to say about spreading rumors involving Sen Allen racist tendencies.

You might want to ask Frist, Romney, and Rudy G if they are involved in any of this stuff.

This message was approved by the other republicans running for President in 08.

[Daniel DiRito]

I contend that the Iraqi conflict, as well as the prevailing Middle East tensions, will be lessened in equal proportion to the success we achieve in providing for a Palestinian state. Given that the NIE assessment posits that, "If democratic reform efforts in Muslim majority nations progress over the next five years, political participation probably would drive a wedge between intransigent extremists and groups willing to use the political process to achieve their local objectives", then it would be reasonable to conclude that any progress with the Palestinian issue will greatly enhance the speculative potentiality of the NIE report. Absent the Palestinian effort, I'm of the opinion that the NIE timeframe is overly optimistic and dependent upon a relatively static progression without the prevalence of unforeseen events and escalations...which seems unlikely at best.

Frankly, I doubt that the existing Republican approach or the alternative of withdrawal supported by a number Democrats will serve to alleviate the existing conditions and bring relative stability to the troubled region. Neither approach has the wherewithal to alter the prevailing sentiment. Conversely, a voluntary effort that would demonstrate our ability to discern the profound importance of a successful Palestinian state would, in my opinion, yield exponential goodwill. Given the current conditions, such an effort has little risk.

Read more here:

www.thoughttheater.com