Well, it's August -- slow news month! -- and the Washington Post has made the editorial decision to check in on former Virginia senator and governor George Allen, because why not. How's he doing? Still racist?
Allen, of course, watched his Senate re-election and eventual presidential hopes shatter in 2006 during a single campaign rally in Breaks, Virginia. In one of the first effective political "viral videos," Allen pointed to an Indian-American volunteer with Jim Webb's campaign and said, "Let's give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." A macaca is some kind of monkey or bird, somewhere. So: racism.
Nowadays, the Post reports, Allen is "focused on his consulting business, his book and the work of his think tank, which is a project of the oil-industry-funded Institute for Energy Research." Progressive!
Allen doesn't rule out a political comeback in the future, because no politician has ever ruled out a political comeback in the future. Still, how does he look back on the "macaca" incident?
"It was alliteration or something," he says. "I don't know the word. I should not have called him anything aside from the fellow in the yellow shirt. . . . It was a mistake. That was not intended to insult anyone. It's not my nature. I'm a generally jovial, happy person. Nonetheless, it was a mistake on my part and I apologize for it even if it was unintentional."
Definitely not alliteration.
Jim Newell writes for Wonkette and IvyGate.
