Poor George Allen. He's running hard for his old seat in the U.S. Senate, but with none of an incumbent's clout and plenty of baggage. He's trying to run against Washington, the president and the deficit, which likely Democratic nominee Tim Kaine is pointing out to voters is rooted in Allen's own Senate voting record. Allen backed wars and tax cuts that blew holes in a national budget surplus, and that is a fair criticism.
Allen's first debate with Kaine on Wednesday shows why Allen faces an uphill fight.
Allen has come out of the gate early, putting together a staff that manages to pump out email attack after attack, day after day, in a curious effort to overcome his reputation of a mean-spirited bully. It's a reputation Allen burnished to a new lustre during a re-election campaign five years ago.
It was his "macaca" attack on a campaign worker for eventual victor Jim Webb that disqualified Allen with enough voters to send his re-election down in flames.
In fairness, Allen has repeatedly apologized for using the term most associated with non-human primates when referring to the young campaign worker of color. He claims he didn't know what "Macaca" meant. But Kaine on Wednesday asked if Allen also didn't know the meaning of the words Allen spoke just before using the M-word: "Welcome to America. Welcome to the real Virginia."
Even to someone who never heard "macaca" before, the meaning comes through loud and clear in that context. The message coming from a modern, Southern elected official is horrifying — and voters decided, disqualifying.
Allen wants us to believe he has changed. He has nearly a year to convince voters that the new, improved George Allen doesn't think that way, or at least wouldn't admit it out loud.
But in another part of Wednesday's debate, he cast new doubts.
In discussing "personhood" — the idea that the law should consider a fertilized human egg as a full person with all the same rights — Allen flunked a 10th-grade biology quiz.
He disputed basic biology: some birth control can cause a fertilized egg not to implant in a woman's uterus.
Under such laws, Kaine argued, the use of birth control could be prosecuted.
Allen either didn't know or didn't want to know the basics. He instead reverted to the lawyer and argued about the Latin roots of the word "contraception."He discovered a whole new area of science to deny. Did his biology instructor have this problem after quizzes?
When called out and cornered, he reverted to form, referring to Kaine as "Doctor Kaine," in a derisive way for a laugh.
Calling someone a mean-spirited name, it appears, is still a George Allen reflex, and a window on his character. Somewhere he's going to have to learn he has to stop having "macaca" moments if he stands any chance of winning in 2012.
http://www.newsleader.com/article/20111211/OPINION01/112110309
Allen's first debate with Kaine on Wednesday shows why Allen faces an uphill fight.
Allen has come out of the gate early, putting together a staff that manages to pump out email attack after attack, day after day, in a curious effort to overcome his reputation of a mean-spirited bully. It's a reputation Allen burnished to a new lustre during a re-election campaign five years ago.
It was his "macaca" attack on a campaign worker for eventual victor Jim Webb that disqualified Allen with enough voters to send his re-election down in flames.
In fairness, Allen has repeatedly apologized for using the term most associated with non-human primates when referring to the young campaign worker of color. He claims he didn't know what "Macaca" meant. But Kaine on Wednesday asked if Allen also didn't know the meaning of the words Allen spoke just before using the M-word: "Welcome to America. Welcome to the real Virginia."
Even to someone who never heard "macaca" before, the meaning comes through loud and clear in that context. The message coming from a modern, Southern elected official is horrifying — and voters decided, disqualifying.
Allen wants us to believe he has changed. He has nearly a year to convince voters that the new, improved George Allen doesn't think that way, or at least wouldn't admit it out loud.
But in another part of Wednesday's debate, he cast new doubts.
In discussing "personhood" — the idea that the law should consider a fertilized human egg as a full person with all the same rights — Allen flunked a 10th-grade biology quiz.
He disputed basic biology: some birth control can cause a fertilized egg not to implant in a woman's uterus.
Under such laws, Kaine argued, the use of birth control could be prosecuted.
Allen either didn't know or didn't want to know the basics. He instead reverted to the lawyer and argued about the Latin roots of the word "contraception."He discovered a whole new area of science to deny. Did his biology instructor have this problem after quizzes?
When called out and cornered, he reverted to form, referring to Kaine as "Doctor Kaine," in a derisive way for a laugh.
Calling someone a mean-spirited name, it appears, is still a George Allen reflex, and a window on his character. Somewhere he's going to have to learn he has to stop having "macaca" moments if he stands any chance of winning in 2012.
http://www.newsleader.com/article/20111211/OPINION01/112110309
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