Fox News on George "Welcome Macaca" Allen

"Allen Campaign Tries to Explain Away Insult to Webb Assistant"

Wow.  That's pretty odd coming from the home of some of Klansman George's strongest opponents.  You'd expect them to write the headline to say "Allen attacked by Liberal Webb Staffer."  But no, they already point out that it was, in fact, an insult.  They point out that Allen is trying to "explain it away."  Not exactly a positive connotation.

"Twenty-year-old S.R. Sidarth spent last week following Allen's "listening tour" and filming the appearances for the Webb campaign. Sidarth is of Indian descent, but is a University of Virginia student born and raised in Fairfax County.

A video clip of the rally shows Allen calling Sidarth a name that sounded like "Macaca" +óGé¼GÇ¥ a term associated with a species of monkeys or a city in South Africa. Later in the clip he welcomed Sidarth to America and "the real world of Virginia."

Wow.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but Fox News is actually being incredbily honest and direct with this so far.  They explain that Macaca means monkey, which most papers have been afraid to do so far. 

"Allen's campaign says the name was intended to be a variation of "Mohawk." That's the nickname campaign staffers gave Sidarth because of his hair, which is cropped closely on the sides. And the campaign says Allen called attention to Sidarth simply to welcome him to a place in Virginia that Webb has never been to and probably will never visit."

Now, Fox probably should've shown the picture of the kid at this point to counter Allen's argument.  While they do mention that Webb has said Allen is stretching for explanations, they could've countered Allen's defense.  I can't really get that pissed, though, as nobody else has shown the picture of the kid either. 

When you're a conservative and Fox News practically spells out that you called somebody a monkey, you know you're in trouble.  Fox doesn't appear to be protecting Allen.  Like many Republicans we've seen recently, Allen may be left to defend himself with only a few friends on this one.

Speaking of Fox, though, one friend Allen appears to have?  Sean Hannity.  Of course, this is no surprise.  Hannity has been talking up Allen for 2008 for over a year now.  Just like O'Reilly and Limbaugh, Hannity would rather eat a live shark than admit he was wrong.  Monday night, on Hannity and Colmes, Hannity barely commented on it.  He said it was ridiculous and moved on.  Probably the better move by conservatives: pretend it didn't happen.  However, I doubt many people will let Allen forget this for a while. 

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