Al Franken has often related the great parable about this guy George who borrows a plate from his neighbor. After he borrows the plate George drops and breaks the plate. He then sneaks into his neighbor's house to return the broken plate. When his neighbor discovers the broken plate the next day confronts his neighbor George. George denies it all by saying "First, I never borrowed the plate. Second, when I borrowed the plate, it was already broken, and third the plate was, moreover, in perfect condition when I returned it."
One fresh unbroken plate of macaca... order up! (ding)
(more below the fold)
Remember when it first started breaking over the
YouTube clip which showed George Felix Allen not once, but twice,
calling a Webb campaign volunteer S.R. Sidarth a "macaca" that he and his campaign
began pushing the lie that he was using a mash-up of the word Mohawk and shit, you know,
before he claimed while reacting in horror at being asked if he was of Jewish ancestry, was "casting aspersions" about his mother?
Well since that lie/excuse that it was just a flubbed version of mohawk would not fly at all, it was time to move on to the excuse/lie he never heard the word before and didn't know what it meant.
When that lie and excuse was rapidly approaching the cliff of being no longer operable we then got that he and his campaign made up the word as a nickname for Sidarth.
Now we get from them that in northern Italy, where Allen's mother has family, "macaca" means "clown" or "buffoon." and that's what Allen was saying. From World Magazine.
Allen actually had a pretty credible defense for what he said. No one--including The Washington Post, which featured the story repeatedly for several weeks--ever demonstrated that "macaca" really has such murky racial connotations in any language. But in northern Italy, where Allen's mother had close family connections, "macaca" does seem to mean "clown" or "buffoon." Allen says now that's what he was trying to communicate.
The quoted part is behind World's subscription wall. The link goes to a version with only the first few paragraphs. The section quoted is further down. But TPM paid the $5 for the online subscription and confirmed the passage above.
So Allen didn't call Siddarth a macaca, before he screwed up saying Mohawk, before he made up the word, before he called him macaca which now means clown and is therefore not an ok thing call someone.
Of course we could always just go with Dick Wadham's crying like a stuck pig memo about how it is all the media, liberals, bloggers, everyone but Allen's fault that Allen said this.
Too bad George Felix Allen has been caught sneaking the broken plate (er. sorry, plate in perfect condition) back into his neighbors house and is exposed for offering up a plethora of conflicting lies to cover that broken plate up. Virginia (and the nation) deserves better than a lying racist to represent their (and all of our) interests in the Untied States Senate. Fortunately they have a more than viable alternative that does just that. One Jim Webb, who is not only shockingly intelligent, competent and level-headed (not to mention not a racist who seeks out support from racist anti-Semitic bigots like Allen) but is intimately knowledgeable and involved in actual national security issues, having served as Reagan's administration's Secretary of the Navy and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs.
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