But after "macaca"there was too much of a brouhaha on the Thurgood Marshall thing, so Allen under pressure turned down the award. That leaves Lambert out there without the intended cover -- if the Thurgood Marshall foundation or whatever it was could giveAllen an award for his work for black colleges and universities, then Lambert would have had the cover of the Marshall name.
But now Lambert doesn't, which makes it even odder. And now here's the key - old, unpredictable Doug Wilder, who always likes to be the toughtest dog in the yard, or whatever other expression you might choose to use.
Now is the time for Jim Webb to reach out directly to Doug, perhaps through Michael Brown setting up a meeting. If the end result of the Lambert endorsement of Allen is a strong endorsement of Webb by Wilder, then the Allen campaign will be the big net losers on the exchange. In chess terms, they might have gained a pawn or at most a knight, but they have given up a queen in the exchange.