In a word, DOOFUS

George Allen is a doofus. His most recent stupidity is making fun of a volunteer for his opponent, Jim Webb, by welcoming him to America.

So you're thinking "Gee, that's friendly. What's wrong with that?"

Ya' see, the volunteer was of South Asian ancestry -- born in Virginia -- but good ol' George had to go there, had to slap this guy with the "perpetual foreigner syndrome" and assumed that because his skin color was a bit darker that he must be an immigrant. Apparently, in Virginia, only white folks are American. And as you can see by the video, the whole thing played very well to his audience (and I'm not even going to mention the fact that after welcoming "Macaca" to America and to Virginia, he immediately segues to terrorism... hmmm... not going to mention it).

I'm thinking Georgie has a very, very narrow campaign trail and an even shorter memory. Apparently he has forgotten all of his American -- or even Confederate -- history. Tsk, tsk George. As your colleague from across the aisle and the river would say... Civics lesson number one: America is an immigrant nation. Also, being from the capital of the Confederacy and having earned a law degree, you might have heard somewhere about slavery... and the 14th amendment? If not, that's civics lesson number two. I guess EHN wasn't teaching at UVA the year you took Con law...

But I digress...

Anyway, the Webb campaign is making hay out of it. I got an email about it from the Webb folks as well as from an Asian American political grassroots group.

According to the Webb folks:

S.R. Sidarth, a volunteer with our campaign of Indian descent, has been following George Allen with a camera. During an event in Breaks, Allen singled our volunteer out:

"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. We're going to places all over Virginia, and he's having it on film and its great to have you here and you show it to your opponent because he's never been there and probably will never come."

"…Lets give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."

We would like Senator Allen to tell us exactly what he means by his comments. Sidarth was born in Fairfax. What does he mean, “Welcome to America?” And by Macaca, is George Allen calling Sidarth a species of monkey in the Eastern Hemisphere?

Sidarth has a name. George Allen’s efforts to demean him, to minimize him as a person should not be tolerated.

(Editorial note: macaca is the genus for the macaque monkey -- which I didn't know until I looked it up.)

Now, we all know I'm Asian American. We all know that I care about stuff affecting my peeps. So is this worth making a big deal out of?

Yes and no. This incident demonstrates, once again, exactly what I said above: George Allen is a doofus. But we all knew that. His vision is also so narrow that I'm surprised he can see at all. Clearly, only white issues are glaringly bright enough for him to discern. Issues of color aren't merely overlooked; they are invisible to his eyes.

As for the "Macaca" name thing. I'd bet money that Georgie doesn't even know what a "macaca" is. At best (and giving him a huge benefit of the doubt), he was being a typical elitist politician and not remembering the guy's name. A more sinister interpretation is that ol' Georgie was being racially insensitive and making fun of the volunteer's name with ethnocentric ignorance (or some might say he's a racist, plain and simple)... Clearly, he was playing the name for yuks from the audience. How charming.

So, yes, it's worth it for the Webb campaign to make some hay. An email was about right. Get it out to the bloggers and the listservs. Maybe an article in the WaPo. Any free publicity off of this stupidity is worth the energy. It's definitely worth the time to spread the word about Georgie (and that word would be "doofus").

Is it worth making a really big stink? No. Spending any real money on this is silly. We all know George Allen is an insensitive clod. This kind of issue will rile up the folks that were going to vote against him anyway, and the ones that were going to vote for him won't even be able to figure out that he said something stupid and insensitive -- and they'll vote for him anyway with a slap on the back for the good ol' boy. It won't change anyone's mind, opinion or position on Georgie. They will vote as they will. So save the real money for issues that will affect the election.

And in case I wasn't completely clear: George Allen is an intolerant, insensitive doofus who spews crap. I think what he said was wrong on so many levels, and he should be held accountable for his prejudiced views. Spread the word so folks know how ign'ant this boy is. We as a nation can do much better. Georgie is one of the worst examples of our elected leadership, and Virginia would have a smarter, more articulate and better-looking Senator if the state did in fact elect a real macaca to office instead of this joker.

Any questions?