Vote Allen: He's a Moron

Jeff Taylor | August 15, 2006

That's the spin after Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) got caught calling an Indian college student -- that's curry-and-basmati Indian, not warbonnet Indian -- a "macaca" twice at an Allen campaign stop in rural, bumfuck Virginny.

Macaca seems to be a rather obscure epithet for anyone with dark skin, roughly similar to calling them a monkey. Allen was referring to S.D. Sidarth, a campaign volunteer for Allen's opponent, James Webb. Sidarth had been following the Allen campaign around videotaping it. Here's how the WaPo reports the Allen slip:

"This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great," Allen said, as his supporters began to laugh. After saying that Webb was raising money in California with a "bunch of Hollywood movie moguls," Allen said, "Let's give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." Allen then began talking about the "war on terror."

Yep, sounds like classic Allen, the great white shark of the Senate. "And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes," says Quint. "When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living...until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white."

Even NRO is comparing Allen's macaca moment to Howard Dean's "yeeaaghhh" freak-out as signature window on a relatively unknown politician's psyche. In Allen's case, his mean streak.

But it gets better, by which I mean worse. Virginia House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) defends Allen by claiming no one knows what he was talking about -- including Allen.

"Not many people in southwest Virginia would think it is derogatory," Griffith said. "I didn't have a clue what it meant, and I doubt Allen did, either."

That's great. Vote for the guy who has no idea what he is talking about, but likes to point and make fun of people all the same.

Alas, the Webb campaign completes the circle of incompetence by trying to make Sidarth sound like a wounded victim and moving to universalize the incident to reach all "people of color." Wrong.

The correct pounce is drive home Allen's utter stupidity. Challenge Allen to read a book before Webb writes another one, something creative. Not the same old grievance shtick.

George Allen does not have the wattage to man a deep fryer support line in Bangalore, let alone serve responsibly in the U.S. Senate. An Allen run for president in 2008? Yeeaaghhh!

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|8.15.06 @ 5:55PM|#

Allen is a millionaire yuppie from California yet has this whole tabacco chewing neckcar fan schtick. I have always found him to be grating in extreme.

|8.15.06 @ 6:02PM|#

We're living in the Age of Stupid. In the Age of Stupid the fact that a politician is a dim bulb is a selling point, not a liability. Stupid = authentic, jes folks, have a beer with him, etc.

Allen has to be considered a front runner in 2008. Dumb, (faux) southern, fundy. He's got it all.

|8.15.06 @ 6:10PM|#

Give my guy a break. He's got a spy filming his every move and all he calls the guy is Macaca, Macaca? never heard of it. Which , by the way, shows the guy is way more worldly than the goober ya'll would like to think.

|8.15.06 @ 6:12PM|#

Maybe ya'll should look up his stand on tying federal funds to state seat belt laws.

|8.15.06 @ 6:16PM|#

"Never insult someone by accident."

-Oscar Wilde

|8.15.06 @ 6:19PM|#

Macaca? never heard of it. Which , by the way, shows the guy is way more worldly than the goober ya'll would like to think.

Since when does using obscure racial slurs make you worldly?

|8.15.06 @ 6:21PM|#

I'd take a football coaching pedigree over a UN ambassador, CIA director, President pedigree anyday. His daddy was smarter than Bush's, beyond a doubt.

|8.15.06 @ 6:25PM|#

We know Allen is wordly. He has a French mother and speaks fluent French. That's why his redneck stick is so grating - he makes Dubya look downright authentic. He's not dumb, he purposely used a french racial slur that in the US is apparently only known in fringe white power circles, probably thinking that most people would have no idea how insulting it really is. If Webb is smart he won't play up the dumb angle - he'll play up the French angle.

|8.15.06 @ 6:31PM|#

Vanya, thanks for the info, he just lost my support. I'm looking for the candidate with no connections to France.

|8.15.06 @ 6:33PM|#

I'm glad Allen said it before the election. It would have totally ruined the pool I'm planning for how long it will take him to say something racist while campaigning for the Republican nomination in '08 if he did it afterwards.

The Wine Commonsewer|8.15.06 @ 6:41PM|#

Macaca? I thought Macaca was a Mexican dish.

b-psycho|8.15.06 @ 7:15PM|#

Funny how the guy he "welcomed" to Virginia was, unlike him, born & raised there...

|8.15.06 @ 7:59PM|#

Not only is Allen's mother French, she's French *Tunisian*.

And 'macaca' is apparently 'macaque', a French derogatory term against North Africans.

source: http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=31575

What a moron indeed.

Not only is Allen's mother French, she's French *Tunisian*.

And 'macaca' is apparently 'macaque', a French derogatory term against North Africans.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=31575

What a moron indeed.

|8.15.06 @ 8:15PM|#

"He's got a spy filming his every move..."

This was the particularly pathetic excuse that NRO's Mark Levin eventually came up with too. As an excuse, it's truly pathetic. EVERY campaign does this and has done this since virtually the invention of modern camcorders. It's completely standard in the industry. These people aren't even spies: everyone knows who they are and knows its part of the industry. Allen has someone filming Webb too. To have someone like Levin actually sit there and pretend to be outraged at this is mindblowing.

That Allen decided to call out this person, thus breaking the fouth wall of politics, is particularly silly. That he called a Virginia native, which Allen is NOT, a foriegner, is pathetic. That he used an obscure racial slur on camera is indeed just plain dunderheaded.

|8.15.06 @ 8:19PM|#

"Let's give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."

now, aside from the use of the word macaca, isnt it clear that this politician was singling out the camera guy for being brown? He assumes the person was not born in, or aquainted with the USA, or maybe he doesn't make that assumption, but suggests it to others, precisely because the person is not white. On top of that, he uses some obscure racial reference. That sounds to be like he was in fact being racist.

|8.15.06 @ 8:52PM|#

Oh, but it gets better. Look at Allen's "apology"!

http://notlarrysabato.typepad.com/doh/2006/08/missed_one.html

Allen says it was all in good fun trying to rib someone that lives inside the beltway and not out "in the real world" where he presumably operates. Well, how would he know where the kid is from? The only relevant fact might be that minorities by and large live inside the beltway. So this non-native Virginian he took one look at the minority kid (who IS a native Virginian) and assumed that he was a foriegner who didn't live in the "real world."

The irony, of course, is that this kid DOES live outside the beltway. I guess though, that that's too much of an oddity for George Allen.

|8.15.06 @ 9:07PM|#

At the DLI (Defense Language Institute), my semi-sorta-girlfriend at the time and I (both of us in the Russian program) used to say "tee malinkaya plokhaya macaca" ("you're a bad little monkey") to each other quite a bit, because we thought it was funny.

Does Allen have any Russian-language background? In Russian, referring to someone with the word pronounced "macaca" does indeed mean that you're calling them a monkey, with no vagueness or obscurity involved whatsoever.

|8.15.06 @ 9:47PM|#

JB: No, it's pretty clear he was using a French Colonial derogatory he picked up from his mother. "Macacque" is a North African monkey; the French Algerians used it as an epithet for their Arab houseboys.

I like Webb because he's a Reagan Republican with impeccable defense credentials who broke with the Party of God over Iraq. He served as Undersecretary of the Navy under Reagan and resigned over the direction of budget cuts: the issue was that the Navy was clipping littoral warfare to save their supercarriers. True, events he could not have predicted at the time have made him a farsighted visionary in retrospect, but he seems less stupid than the rest of our political class.

|8.15.06 @ 9:50PM|#

As a side question, when does connection to the France quit being a liability. Weren't people (Republicans, esp.) all against the French back in '03 because the French were not enthusiastic about going to war in Iraq with us and said that it would be a bad idea? At some point it seems like the 'freedom fry' people and maybe James Ard owe them an apology. Or do we still have to be mad at them because they didn't blindly and wrongly support the bad move that we made?

|8.15.06 @ 10:13PM|#

Macaca? Glad to see the Republicans are keeping up in the game of who can spew the most insensitive and/or racist comments about Indians.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/06/elec04.s.mo.farmer.clinton.ap/

Congrats, one and all. If the Libertarians are ever to enter the mainstream, they're going to have to get with the program.

"warbonnet Indian"? Um, just a tad bit ironic in the context of this article wasn't it?

|8.15.06 @ 10:19PM|#

He's got my vote! (sadly, since there aren't a whole lot of options.)

|8.15.06 @ 10:22PM|#

bigbigslacker - but, at least hillary's mea culpa was funny...

|8.15.06 @ 10:24PM|#

I hate to beg, but if there are any VA voters who arent familiar with GA, please look into him consider a vote for Webb, if for no other reason than Weigel called Webb a Libertarian Democrat, and Allen raised the whole flag burning amendment issue again, and again, and again. Allen really deserves to lose.

|8.15.06 @ 10:31PM|#

From my athiest/non-Hindu perspective, it was funny. But, according to my PC Living For The Hypersensitve Handbook, that makes it worse. Forgiveness goeth easieth to the biggeth moron.

|8.15.06 @ 10:33PM|#

Taylor, we always said "dot Indian" or "feather Indian"...sounds almost the same. And how else should you differentiate quickly? Native American has never made sense to me; they immigrated here as well.

Then again, I am a Redskins fan, so perhaps I should shut my yap.

|8.15.06 @ 11:11PM|#

"George Allen does not have the wattage to man a deep fryer support line in Bangalore,..."

Guess that's Bangalore, India and not Bangalore, Maine, right? What, is there something especially "low wattage" about the Indians in Bangalore to make them part of the butt of your joke?

That may be no macaca, but I find that slightly politically incorrect!

|8.16.06 @ 1:06AM|#

"The correct pounce is drive home Allen's utter stupidity. Challenge Allen to read a book before Webb writes another one, something creative. Not the same old grievance shtick."

Actually, the correct pounce would be to film commercials with pics of Allen morphing into a Grand Wizard, with this Macaca statement playing over and over again, maybe with some scary music in the background, and pics of some trees bearing "strage fruit" from the Reconstruction days.

|8.16.06 @ 1:10AM|#

|8.16.06 @ 1:36AM|#

Randian- Native American has never made sense to me; they immigrated here as well.

Yeah like about 10,000 years ago. That's 9,500 years longer than any other ethnic group. Maybe we should call them African natives along with everyone else.

|8.16.06 @ 2:39AM|#

what do you call a feather indian from canada or mexico?

'canadian native american'?

How about a white guy from africa that immigrated here? 'white african american'? Maybe that would be confused with an Eminem type though.

|8.16.06 @ 2:51AM|#

I've never understood the enthusiasm for "Native American," either. "American" is just another White Devil word borrowed from the name of a Spanish admiral. What is the advantage to having your people named after a Spanish admiral? What difference could it make?

Some years ago, the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council took up the debate and concluded that the new political code word wasn't worth changing their stationary. If they really wanted to make an issue over it, they said, they would insist that the media learn the names of each tribe in Minnesota and apply them appropriately. Which, in fairness, the local media often attempt to do. For the collective, however, they still use "Native American." The various tribes themselves don't appear to have a collective term in their native language.

|8.16.06 @ 3:54AM|#

That James Ard bit had to be a troll. No major spelling errors and correct apostrophe usage.

|8.16.06 @ 9:11AM|#

i believe indians in the usa have the highest per household income, or second highest.
poor selection of your antagonists, don't you think?

|8.16.06 @ 9:52AM|#

So, are people hating on George Allen because he's an idiotic politician, or because he used an obscure and out-of-usage racial epithet that most people have to look up before they can be offended? Sounds like #1, what with the borderline usage of "curry-and-basmati" vs. "warbonnet" descriptions of Indians.

Personally, I prefer door #1. Like gun usage, word usage is all about intent. I call my friends assholes and fuckheads all the time and I don't mean it in a derogatory way.

D.A. Ridgely|8.16.06 @ 10:50AM|#

So is the point here that someone actually might be too stupid to be president? I find that hard to believe.

|8.16.06 @ 10:53AM|#

rafuzo, unfortunately, the fact that you have to look up the term just makes it worse for Allen. It highlights the fact that it's very very very unlikely that he just happens to have the very rare cultural background which includes the use of this word.

Do you call random black people on the street "monkey" in a funny, non-derogatory way?

|8.16.06 @ 11:14AM|#

rafuzo, if I've never read Shakespeare, does that mean I can call Jews "shylocks" and anti-semite?

How about if I display all the visceral, bullying glee you can see in Allen's face and body language while I do it?

|8.16.06 @ 11:18AM|#

rafuzo, if I've never read Shakespeare, does that mean I can call Jews "shylocks" eithout being an anti-semite?

How about if I display all the visceral, bullying glee you can see in Allen's face and body language while I do it?

|8.16.06 @ 12:17PM|#

the guy clearly had a racial intent, he wasn't being "stupid."
is there really any doubt that he was singling this guy out for his skin color and ethnic background? its not even about the word he used, but the suggestion that the guy was a foreigner based on his ethnic background. the slur just adds insult to injury.

|8.16.06 @ 12:44PM|#

when does connection to the France quit being a liability

Never.

Unless you are a chef. Or a hooker. Then its a plus.

va assumable mortgage|8.16.06 @ 7:04PM|#

va assumable mortgage va assumable mortgage

|8.17.06 @ 10:02AM|#

I don't understand all the people who are saying "I never heard of this slur, so of course, ALLEN meant something else". What kind of fucking logic is that?

Just because I have to occasionally look up words when reading Jeff Goldstein, doesn't mean that Jeff doesn't know what he's talking about.

|8.18.06 @ 3:47AM|#

There are two kinds of racists. Those
who sleep with their sisters and those
who sleep with their mothers. The
Senator whatever the hell his name is
has been sleeping with his mother -
a macaca Tunisian immigrant.

|8.18.06 @ 12:27PM|#

The kid was outnumbered. There were about a
hundred crazy wiggers Senator Felix was inciting
with his speech.

|8.18.06 @ 11:06PM|#

The unhinged Senator is known to keep a "noose"
in his office. Lucky for the kid the legislator didn't
bring that noose with him to the rally. What with
the howling mob of 100-strong peckerwoods, in all
probability, we would have seen a lynching.

|8.19.06 @ 10:40AM|#

The Cocksuckasian Senator in question is a useless piece of chit.

|8.19.06 @ 12:42PM|#

Candidates know they may be videotaped on the
campaign trail by trackers from their opponents'
camps. They just ignore them. In this case, the
Senator could have simply ignored the kid. Or, if
he so chose, he could have handled the kid's
presence at the small rally with humor directed at
his opponent. Not the kid. The kid is not running
for office.

Senator Felix could finesse neither which shows
he's a low-rent dumbass wigger sumbitch.

|8.21.06 @ 12:13AM|#

Minorities, please be good to the majority. Don't reduce
wiggers and cocksuckasians who are the backbone
of this country to s h i t eater status.

|8.21.06 @ 12:52AM|#

Some of this is speculation on my part.

I saw the CNN interview. The kid is savvy.
He has aplomb.

Judging from all the comments I have read,
the Senator's staff is a bunch of crude
a-holes.

The kid is cool. His selfassuredness I'm
guessing may have triggered the staff's
dislike and the attack on him by the Senator.

The Senator and his staff are not cool,
they are not savvy, they have no aplomb.
They are a bunch of coarse wiggers.

|8.21.06 @ 2:16AM|#

Senator GFA Monkeyman admitted recently
he possesses limited intelligence. It comes
from your sleeping with your mother, Senator.

|8.21.06 @ 8:31AM|#

The Senator has not served in the military.
He's a weekend warrior who fancies he's
some kind of wigger power revolutionary.

|8.21.06 @ 10:43AM|#

Here's something the Senator, out on the stump recently,
could have told the kid who was videotaping him: Drop
Webb. Come, join my campaign.

That takes class and a whole lot of good upbringing. This
Senator is a common wigger who'll never rise to that
level of intellectual development.

|8.21.06 @ 12:21PM|#

What would you prefer to be? A wigger lover
or a monkey lover?

Monkeys are clean antiseptic animals. Wiggers
are septic and stink like hell - a lot of hookers
will tell you that.

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