Great link text. :P

I thought that this was probably going to happen... yet I am still amazed, somehow.

I love Dick Wadhams' answer:

“The can say or do whatever they want,” Wadhams said.

It sounds like he may be angry...

SCV: Sen. Allen's former friends...  Who else will he alienate with his pandering? 

The GOP machine has decided if no one has noticed that because of recent incidents and events that George Allen is a liability.

It's sad to see usual GOP pundits, pollsters, and publications going after Allen..

Then again, it's very entertaining.

Why are they going after Allen? Or turning against him?

One less candidate to fret about for 2008.

...and by extension how Virginia will look to South Africa if it votes to re-elect him

http://www.mg.co.za/...

This appeared in an online South African newspaper:

Republican senator snared by race row 
27 September 2006 07:29

A tobacco-chewing Virginian seen as a leading contender for the Republican party leadership was fighting for political survival on Tuesday amid allegations that he once stuck a deer's severed head into an African-American family's mailbox.

The accusations of racism against George Allen, pillar of conservative Christians and the son of a legendary football coach, followed allegations this month that he used a racial slur against a Democratic volunteer of Indian origin.

In the latest episode to raise questions about Allen's views on race, five acquaintances from the senator's days as a quarterback on the college football team in the 70s said he had used racial epithets, including the word "nigger", in the company of white friends.***

And I think this is a very astute observation:

The controversy also undermines Republican efforts to make the party more palatable to African American voters who historically have supported the Democrats.

So Allen can also say or do whatever he wants.  He just can't act that way and be a U.S. Senator (any longer). 

Now THAT is funny.

When is the CCC gonna issue a complaint about him turning away from them as well?

;)

that the state Republican leadership has rented some large meeting rooms at a well know hotel in Richmond this weekend and next, to figure out how to do some serious damage control from the last month's activities. Oh to be a mouse in the corner.... make any bets they inspect the room for bugging devices ??? paranoid ???

The real question is should we clue in the Monkey and the Banana.... that would probably not go over well....

I have -- full disclosure -- a couple of Republican friends. They have a sense of humor as well as a good dose of common sense (though it usually takes a vacation break, the first 10 days of November in evenly-numbered years), which, to me, is enough of a redeeming feature to put up with them. One of my friends is a female equivalent of the group mentioned in the post -- a member of Confederate Daughters of whatever (or whatever the official title is).

As an organization, they do a lot of good (hey, so do Hamas and Hezbolla ). As individuals -- at least judged on the single instance of my friend -- they're *not* racist.

She has lots of stuff (towels, mugs, key-chains, etc, etc) decorated with the Confederate flag; for her, that's a part of Virginia history, and should not be denied. She's totally nuts on the subject of R.E.Lee (I admit that, the more I read about the guy, the more I admire him myself).

But try and and make a racist comment to her and she'll just about tear your wind-pipe out. It was after Allen's macaca comment (and my pointing out how he's made a laughingstock of *Virginia*, not just himself), that she washed her hands off of him.

I wish I could say she'll vote for Webb... She won't. But she's gonna stay home, and won't vote for Allen, either. Half a loaf... :)

This is huge news - it strikes at the heart of Allen's support in Virginia that he has cultivated over 30 years. Allen has to go on the attack watch out for the hit pieces on Webb in the coming days. Webb can win this election in  by how he responds to Allen's desperate attacks. I am now predicting Webb can win this thing by 4-5 points.

That is all.