That is was completely harmless.  He was trying to make fun of himself in an attempt to ease the tension in the room over the incident.  Problem is, this is just on of those things you CAN'T poke fun of, even when the thing you're teasing is yourself.

This was just Allen trying to lighten-up his base and offer some encouragement.  Unfortunately, that'll be pretty hard to do.  I think the best thing for Allen to do would be move on, and leave well enough alone.  Don't try to make this funny, Senator.  It's not.

It's obvious everything he does will get HUGE scrutiny so he'd better watch himself.

This is not harmless.  Not to me, at least.  He is making this serious offense into a laughing matter when he is among caucasian people.  At the end of the video, he must have realized that he was making fun of the entire incident with that wink. Then he apologizes, which to me sounded extremely insincere.  Jerk!

there you have it, if you want a float, get Bush winking and Allen Winking and well, let everyone try and figure out what the hell they really mean.

Am I telling you the truth?
Do you really want to know?
Do you think I care?
How about voting for me?
Had enough?
Can you tell that I don't care?

there you have it, if you want a float, get Bush winking and Allen Winking and well, let everyone try and figure out what the hell they really mean.

Am I telling you the truth?
Do you really want to know?
Do you think I care?
How about voting for me?
Had enough?
Can you tell that I don't care?

Winking at it or trying joke about it will just keep it alive by keeping the question alive about whether he sincerely apologized. Personally, I think he's a bigot and well understood what he did though perhaps he didn't think, for whatever reason, that an intentional racist slur would cause so much trouble once it was communicated beyond his immediate audience. If I'm wrong and he's not a bigot, then he is so utterly vapid so as to call into question whether he has enough innate intelligence to pour a yellow substance out of his footwear....

For a supposed contrite person as Allen claims to be now, why continue to make light of insensitive racial remarks?

 

he just apologized to Sid, why is he already ha-ha-ing this thing?  his remorse period was pretty damn short.

Winking is body language for a secret meaning between two people or "We know what I REALLY mean". That's where the phrase "A wink and a nod" comes from. This doesn't mean I'm getting sleepy. It means I'll say one thing but you/I know we don't really mean it, or we mean something else. The smile gives everything away. That is, he's not serious about wanting to be careful; he thinks its a joke.

I just said it. He probably tells fart jokes with president Bush.

You people are a laugh riot.  Did you even watch the video?  He was laughing at himself, saying that he had to be "very careful with my words. [wink]" 

And you think that means something? 

Oh. My. God.

Get a clue.

As have many others.  He was making a joke out of the recent events.  Personally, I don't think it's a laughing matter.  Stop grouping us all together.  I don't know how things work on the other side of the isle, but here everybody has their own opinion.

The original post and several comments (besides yours) clearly said that the wink meant something, and that it was a very bad thing.  So, since you said it didn't mean anything, it should've been obvious that I wasn't talking about your post.

I know better than to involve you in a debate, I.Publius, but your sureness stirs me to question... what exactly is it that you think? I, personally, have never winked at someone without having a deeper meaning that was temporarily inconvenient to verbalize, and I would go so far as to say a wink in our culture is generally intended to convey a hidden meaning, or at least hidden kinship. Do you think George Allen meant.... nothing when he winked? What, exactly, is your understanding of the gesture?

ps. If you'd like to actually reason with me, and get your perspective onto this blog in a way that might have a chance at averting a feeding frenzy, I ask you treat me the way I am treating you. Otherwise, you're wasting your time.

Allen was teasing himself and at the same time poking a little fun at the brouhaha that ensued when he hadn't been careful about his words.

If you truly believe that Allen knew what macaca meant and that he actually intended to call Sidarth a racial slur, then yeah, I can see how your interpretation of that wink would make sense.

On the other hand, if (like me) you think that Allen's use of macaca was a slip of the tongue and a nonsense nickname, and the whole incident was grossly blown out of proportion -- into a feeding frenzy, in fact -- then my interpretation makes sense.

And I agree that winks can imply something unspoken, something that "we really can't talk about right now."  And I also think that his wink might very easily have meant to impart something along the lines of, "That was a silly bunch of nonsense, wasn't it, ma'am, turned into a ridiculous scandal by my desperate opponent, his dedicated volunteer who loved being in the limelight, and reporters who wanted a juicy story about a Washington Republican... but those of us who live in real America know how dumb that whole story was to begin with. Still, I do have to be careful about my words so something like that won't happen again."

Then again, sometimes winks just mean, "I'm kinda teasin' here, ya know?" 

;-)

p.s. I tried it this way here for quite a while, but quickly found that any attempt at rational discourse that strayed from the official RK party line was immediately met with foaming at the mouth vitriol in my direction.  So excuse me if I quit taking the time to discuss things -- it simply wasn't worth the effort.  Quick comments to point out idiotic posts, however, remained quite worth it.  Nice to see that there's at least someone here who has the ability to discuss things rationally with a conservative.  You're a rare breed, especially at RK.

I can see how that would follow logically given your previous beliefs about Allen. As with a lot of things, I guess this tends to be a political Rorschach test. I still believe that it was an obvious indication of his insincerety, and you will continue to believe what you do. Given his long and documented history, each successive event makes me despise him more. Alone, they may be innocent, but too many coincidences spells a pattern. Again, you may see it differently, and it's really your perogative to believe what you will.

ps, don't get too self-congratulatory about being capable of debate. I noticed that you still couldn't resist throwing a few underhanded jabs. Again, do what you will. Here's to a return to a less divisive environment, however idealistic that may be. Good day.

but I'd really like to see what happens right after the wink... too bad WAPO cut the video.

Just a wink!

If he keeps this up, like in another post where he calls out to a cameraman "WHO ARE YOU?"  and the crowd goes into spontaneous laughter... you are seeing a page out of Bush/Rove playbook. 

CHAPTER 80: Just laugh at my weakness, turn the tables, make a mockery out of my failings... I can take it, cause I said it..

The trouble is, he is looking like a bafoon and we have already been down that road and the American people don't want another clown in the WH or in the Senate. 

Not a prayer!