A Big Macaca Attacka

So Sen. George Allen (R-VA) likes to sling aroung obscure French racist slurs. What's the big deal? Doesn't everybody? What's the French racist slang for "cracker"?

I blogged about Allen's bizarre racist identity crisis a little while back, so I can't really say I'm surprised by this story, which has made the front page of the Washington Post. But there are a couple of points that have yet to get much coverage. First, as part of his rant against S.R. Sidarth (the "macaca"), the Indian-American campaign worker for Jim Webb who was videotaping Allen's speech, Allen gives a "Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia" spiel and then goes off on how Webb is out in evil Hollywood raising money. Ironically, Allen is the one who grew up rich and went to school in Los Angeles. Sidarth, meanwhile was born, raised and schooled in Virginia. Plus, since Allen's mom is a card-carrying, America-hating Frenchie, he's also just as much an immigrant-child as the man he mocks. So what makes Allen the arbiter of "real world" America? Pretty clear that it's because he's white. But the real histories of the two men demonstrate just how bad a marker that little racial category actually IS when it comes to defining "authenticity," even in a state like Virginia.

As many people have noted, Allen's explanation of events--the old "I was making fun of his 'mohawk' hair" excuse, when he didn't actually have a mohawk-- is hard to believe. Much more likely is that Allen and his staffers had started casually using that term to refer to Sidarth, who had been taping Allen's speeches looking for just such a meltdown. Jackpot! Sometimes if you just watch the loonies closely enough, they'll unravel right in front of you. Whether or not this hurts Allen's reelection campaign, it will be damaging for his presidential run in 2008. If Allen goes down, who exactly will the GOP establishment turn to? Mitt Romney and (ewwww) Bill Frist may be the only guys left standing. Horserace aside, wouldn't this gaffe pretty much kill the career of any past or present Democrat or any pre-Bush Republican? I'll be interested to see if the heat goes up, or if this just fizzles, like a Frenchman in the North African desert.