I wonder if there's a way to help turn this into something like an op-ed for the RTD or another paper.  Jim Webb's ability to turn out support from the African American community will be critical to his election, and that should be a group that supports him strongly (both for his commitment to improving economic opportunity for Virginians, his belief in keeping jobs here, and George Allen's troubling racist past).  Don McEachin is the type of leader who is respected and valued, and his voice could be instrumental in sharing the good things that Jim Webb can offer Virginians.

Any interest from the campaign?

Tyler Whitley said to expect a lot more reporting from the RTD on this race now. Allen just exposed himself badly, and people will be more curious about Webb. The timing is good for op-eds and LTEs to set tone and define terms of the public debate.

This is the perfect time in Richmond to position Webb as the guy who is in touch with Virginia's values and needs.  Allen just made a move that has potential to alienate a lot of Virginia's minority voters.  The candidate can continue to carry his positive messages about what he will bring to Virginia, what he believes in, etc., and other third parties can continue to hammer at Allen's troubling past. 

Interestingly, the tracking issue comes up in other campaigns, though not like this.  In the district in NY I grew up in, there was a recent flap where the GOP incumbent said the Dem tracker was "stalking" him.  What did I do?  Wrote an LTE yesterday to the hometown paper that explained that trackers are common and important, both to political strategy and to show voters what a candidate says to different types of event attendees.  And then, I raised the point that in Virginia, Sen. Allen was caught on tape using a slur and saying "welcome to America" to a tracker born and raised in Virginia of Indian descent.  A comment like "Good thing the tracker had the camera on.  What exactly is Rep. Sweeney saying to event attendees that he doesn't want the district's voters to see on camera?" can be pretty effective!  And it helps spread keep attention throughout the country on Allen's major mistake and ties it to the Republican party.

and to the point, the goal is to defeat George F.Allen.

That is attainable, for we have the spirit.

I look forward to Don McEachin's live blog tomorrow.

...and greatly look forward to his "live blog."

It is interesting to note that Allen is not from Virginia. When I worked in Virginia there was what I was calling the Simon Legree Syndrome (Simon Legree, the slave driver in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," was from Pennsylvania). It was Yankees and others who went to the South because they perceived white Southerners to be racist or generally speaking in the phrase historian Dan Carter has used on occasion, "American fascist." Newt Gingrich, George Bush and Allen have all adopted the South and what they perceive to be Southern sensibilities but there is not an iota of Southern culture, character, integrity or honor in any of them. They are all faux Southerners dressing up like Thomas Nelson Page's "Little Confederates" (speaking as one whose wife and children are all Virginia Pages). Actual Southern people have integrated and assimilated in an enormously complex biracial passage running 400 years next year - a "Southern burden" the great historian C. Vann Woodward called it, which has honed Virginians and Southern people of both races through suffering, poverty, war and the curse of slavery into American citizens with deep and subtle natures. Neo-confederate Gingrich has even written a novel about the Civil War, and guess who won? I was a magazine editor when Allen was governor for state science museums in Virginia. The state bureaucracy was in a state of utter mayhem lacking management from top to bottom because Allen hired only political apparatchiks, none of whom knew a thing about their jobs. At one point the state managed to lose some giant mammoth and sloth bones collected by Thomas Jefferson. This priceless treasure of which Jefferson and Virginia were enormously proud, randomly misplaced and lost by Allen's faux Confederates (one employee actually wore a Confederate uniform to work every day - he had no other clothes) became the general theme of that unfortunate time in Virginia's history when the state was commandeered by ideologists. Maybe Jim could ask Allen – what happened to Jefferson’s bones? And incidentally, if Allen weren’t such a xenophobe he might also consider the derivation of the name Sidarth – derived from Siddhartha, the ninth incarnation of Vishnu – the gods have delivered this to Jim.

They are pretenders.

I don't mind if Allen is a Californian who adopted Virginia. His adaptation of southern culture is a charicature that is pretty insulting at times. GW Bush has a fake Texas accent. I think they put on the act to try to fool us into believing they are like ordinary people who didn't grow up with privilege.

Sadly, reality tends to crush the illusions that they project, as when your incompetent Allen appointees lost priceless artifacts, or when FEMA was gutted and no one in the Fed took responsibility for the Katrina and Rita hurricane disasters.

Well, it's time for everyone to wake up and acknowledge that the emperor has no clothes!

They are pretenders.

I don't mind if Allen is a Californian who adopted Virginia, but his adaptation of southern culture is a charicature can be pretty insulting. GW Bush has a fake Texas accent. I think they put on the act to try to fool us into believing that they are like ordinary people who didn't grow up with privilege, and thus trustworthy.

Sadly, reality tends to crush the illusions that they project, as when your incompetent Allen appointees lost priceless artifacts, or when FEMA was gutted and no one in the Fed took responsibility for the Katrina and Rita hurricane disasters.

Well, it's time for everyone to wake up and acknowledge that the emperor has no clothes!

Great points in the write up and look forward to the live blog!

Thanks ...sorry I am late.  Lets chat

Delegate McEachin -

First of all, let me say that Ben Tribbett jumping on you and hugging you during the Webb victory party was one of the funniest visuals I've ever seen. God I love Virginia politics.

Anyway, on to my question - I'm curious if you have any interesting anecdotes or tales about reactions you've received from your constituents to the George Allen scandal. I'm a Richmond native, but I'm trapped up in NOVA right now so I'm really only seeing the NOVA perspective...and as we all now know (thanks to George Allen), NOVA is not part of America. Actually, it's not even part of the earth - it's a moon that orbits it.

In my district, the reaction to the macacas debacle was more of the same from George Allen.  The notion that someone with brown skin must be from somewehere else shows how out of touch Felix is with Virginia. You don't have to look like Felix to be from America.

I think we Democrats have a good chance of captruing the House.  We have to play it smart and I understand that Conventional Wisdom suggest that the Senate will go before the House.  What any number of individuals have not recognized is that the gain necessary in both chambers is proportionaly the same.

Transportation-The Republicans continue to insist on robbing the general fund for transportation needs.  Meanwhile the list of unmet needs in the Commonwealth is huge.  The services that we offer to the poor and edlderly as well as our young people would all be enhanced if we has a long term sustainable funding source for transportation.

Please assess for us what you think the chances are for gains in the Democratic Caucus in the Legislature? I think this is important because I see it as even more evidence that Democrats are returning to power in a large way. It can only mean good things for candidates up and down the ticket.

Thank you for all your work on Democratic and Progressive issues.

in the African American community to Allen's "macaca" comments?  Do you think this will energize African American voters and focus their minds on the fact that George Allen is a racist member of a party that panders to racists?

What's been the reaction to last Spring's transportation bruhaha amongst your constituents? Supposedly tax increases for transportation didn't poll well in Richmond...

I would be interested to hear your omments on the recent NAACP rating of 15% (a grade of "F") for George F. Allen on legislative issues.

I did not see the NAACP report card.  However, I am not surprised.  Here we have a Senator who wanted to promote Confederate History Month while ignoring slavery.  The man had a noose in his law office.  Felix just does not live in the same world as the rest of us.  He is out of touch with real Virginians and there concerns.

I wish the Liberals, Minorities and Democrats would just leave George Allen alone.

•Blacks are mad just because he loved the confederate flag  as a California youth, kept a hangman’s noose conspicuously displayed and honored the confederacy with nary a mention of that slavery thing.

•Liberals are mad at him because he owns stock in the company that manufacturers the ‘morning after pill� while acting like a right to lifer.

•Democrats are mad at him because he just does what Bush and Cheney tell him to do and he is bored being a senator. Heck, his 2008 presidential run right after this election should be far less boring.

•Indians, the Gandhi ones, are mad at him because he twice called a young one of them a “macaca� or monkey.

•Immigrants and other foreigners are mad at him because he stands in front of a hooting and hollering rural white republican audience to tell this American born brown kid this is the “real America�.

The next thing you know “these� people will tell you a silver spoon is less worthy than a silver star. What a bunch of namby pamby nitpickers.

NN Dem we need to meet.  I love your sense of humor

I sent you an invitation to the Peninsula JJ Gala for October 7th. We are trying to make this a really big deal in VA

We are honoring Delegates BaCote and Ward this year. Webb, Kellam, O'Donnell, Moran, Deeds, Byrne and many others should be in attendance.

Vist our event web page www.PeninsulaJJ.org

How do you see the election shaping up in the 74th?

You never know if you are going to have opposition or not.  I'll do the best job I can and will see what '07 brings

Donald -

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to blog with us.
I commend you for supporting Webb.

Will you canvass for Webb again as you did in the primary? I think doing that in Richmond especially is an excellent idea.

What do you think Webb's chances are with picking up votes in the minority groups in Richmond?

Thanks again for blogging today.

See you on the campaign trail!

I absolutely will canvass with Jim.  I will surrogate for him as well.  The picking up of minority votes by Jim will happen.  Between Jim's compassion and Felix showing his true colors there is no contest.

will energize African American voters to show up in large numbers this November?  After the nasty primary contest, in which Jim Webb was inaccurately accused of being against Affirmative Action for African Americans, do you think this incident focuses peoples' minds on the true nature of George Allen's Republican Party?

Thanks for the question.  I don't think that the Anti Affirmative Action stuff was heard by the rank and file general election voter.  Moreover Jim is working hard to introduce himself to African American leaders around the state. As he does these things and other activities like Church going the African American Community will get to know him better and see all the good things that I have seen in him. 

The campaign would be naive to think that the macaca comment alone will increase turnout.  You increase turnout with a positive message where Jim addresses the issues important to African Americans

Delegate:

Aside from my dripping satire in my prior post, how do you see the "rift" between Webb and the minority community playing out in the coming months.

I deal with several grassroots organizers in Hampton Roads. When I sent the Allen gaffe out to my email list, a grassroots  friend in Hampton sent me a reply to the effect....

"Webb has some issues too about minority and womens issues."

How can this perception be overcome to ensure a big turnout, especially in the 3rd CD where Bobby is unopposed? Do you see a poor turnout in the minority communities?

I think the reaction of your grassroots organizers underscores my prior point.  You drive turnout with a positive message that addresses the concerns of African Americans.  Jim is very capapble of addressing such issues, I have seen him do so.  The other thing to remember is that this is August.  Genreal election voters do not start paying attention until after Labor Day.  You and I are activist.  We eat and sleep this stuff.  Don't worry the Democratic base will be there for Jim in November.

and the Senate.

Del. McEachin,

Can you speak briefly of the historical importance that Webb's foreign policy background and military experience bring not only to the Democratic Party, but will bring to the Senate when he is elected. (Yes, I am very optimistic!)

Thanks for your early support for Jim, it shows your courage and integrity in the face of a not so pretty primary.

There was a Democratic Senator from Washington State named Henry "Scoop" Jackson.  He was a hawk.  Jim will carve his own niche in the Senate.  However, his strong military background and foreign policy credentials will bring a unique and needed perspective to the Senate.

to bring around the African-American officeholders, such as Senator Marsh, that endorsed Jim's primary opponent?  What about Governor Wilder who did not endorse in the primary?

As Jim meets with state office holders like myself and Henry Marsh they will see his integrity, experience, and credentials.  Once this these state office holders are exposed to Jim they will be there for him.  Its happening even as I type this.

Thanks to all who took out time to chat with me today.  I have to go back and practice law now.  See you on the hustings.

Donald

It's been an honor.  Please come again! - Lowell