Welcome to dirty politics
You know, sometimes I wish Republican politicians would grow a pair. Or at least go back and rethink their PR philosophy when it comes to fighting back personal attacks. I say this in light of the recent hysteria created by Sen. George Allen, R-Va.
To give you a quick summary, on Aug. 11, Sen. Allen twice referred to a 20-year-old of Indian ancestry as "macaca." The individual was Shekar Ramanuja Sidarth, a volunteer for Jim Webb, Allen's democratic political opponent. Quickly word hit the street about the remarks and the bloggesphere went wild. The late-night talk shows had a field day and columnists everywhere began calling for Allen's removal...or at least for his defeat in the upcoming mid-term elections.
What Senator Allen said was dumb. It was a bad attempt at trying to be funny while taking a shot at his political opponent. But there is something else at play here that hits to the true angle of this story. You see, George Allen is a Republican. And what is deemed "dismissible" for Democrats is rarely the same for members of the GOP.
Think back not so long ago to the day Democratic Senator Joe Biden put his foot in his mouth in reference to Delaware's large Indian population. Biden said "you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent."
Double standard? Of course!
Biden was clearly stereotyping Indians. If that happens from a conservative politician or someone like Sean Hannity, they're racist and it's front page news. But the only noise made about the Biden issue came from conservative blogs like mine. And most of our posts simply pointed out the double-standard approach from the media, not the stupid remarks.
Biden didn't stop at that. Recently he was trumpeting his own state's slave history as a way to attract voters in South Carolina. I'm not kidding? A democrat Senator raves about his states slave history as a way to show he's "just one of the guys" down there in the south and nothing is made of it. Betsy's Page makes a great point by saying... just imagine if George Allen went down to South Carolina and said the exact same thing regarding Virginia?
Heck, even George Allen's opponent, Jim Webb isn't free of dirt.
From Riley, Not O'Reilly at Virginia Virtucon - Who would have referred to the U.S. Naval Academy's dormitory as "a horny woman's dream" with respect to female plebes? Oh, yeah. That's right..... Jim Webb.
Shall I assume Jim Webb believes all females attending our military academies are "horny women?" What does that say of his respect for women in our armed forces? That's not very liberal like there Jimbo!
Outside the beltway makes a great point about how the liberal PR machine has convinced Americans to forgive and forget the racial history of the Democratic party...That's to say nothing of recent comments by Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, both considered among the leading contenders for the 2008 presidential nomination. Yet, those comments got a fraction of the media play that Allen's and Burns' got. Certainly, part of this is that there is a longstanding perception that Republicans are the party of rich white people and the Democrats are the champions of minorities and the downtrodden. So, racially insensitive remarks (or even those that could be portrayed that way, as in the case of the "macaca" incident) by Republicans fit a pre-existing schema whereas those by Democrats are considered aberrant.
Which is exactly why I think it's not my job to point out racial slurs and stereotypes by liberals, but to expose the double-standard in which they are reported. George Allen, Joe Biden and Jim Webb are not racist. They are not sexist. They are not insensitive rich-white guys who make fun of the immigrant. They are politicians in the lime light who make mistakes while on public display. We as Republicans should spend more time pointing out it was our party that passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and less time trying to be funny at the expense of our opponents. Winning elections is insult enough.