Saturday, September 23, 2006
Senator Allen's foot-in-mouth disease
"That Sen. George Allen–he just can't do enough to alienate various ethnic and religious constituencies, can he?" A very astute observation from U.S. News & World Report in writing about the latest Allen gaffe.
With the Allen campaign in serious trouble (and if Wadhams wasn't fired--he probably should have been), conservative Virginia bloggers have picked up the gauntlet on behalf of their failing candidate who apparently can't speak a word without sticking his fake cowboy boots in his mouth.His ancestry became an issue in his quickly imploding bid for re-election as a Virginia Republican when Allen was asked about his Jewish heritage during a debate with his Democratic opponent, Jim Webb. Allen nastily chided the reporter who posed the question and dismissed it as irrelevant.
"My mother is French-Italian with a little Spanish blood in her," Allen told the panelist. He said he had been raised as a Christian and made no mention of any Jewish heritage. On Tuesday, Allen acknowledged his Jewish ancestry publicly for the first time, in a statement his campaign issued. In fact, the reporter who posed the question, Peggy Fox, noted that Allen's mother was not only Jewish but from Tunisia (where French is spoken). She asked whether he might have begun using the word "macaca" after learning it from his mother. "Macaca" is a racial slur often used by French-speaking people to mean "monkey." Allen's implosion began when he was caught on videotape calling an American of Indian descent "macaca" in front of an audience of small-town Virginians on a campaign stop.
So, Allen first makes a racial slur, then gets mad during the debate with Webb and accuses his questioner of casting "aspersions." Then he does a 180 and the next day issues a statement saying he takes "great pride" in his Jewish heritage. Later, he states in an interview: "I still had a ham sandwich for lunch. And my mother made great pork chops." Jews who keep kosher don't eat pork.Conservative Virginia bloggers have taken to insulting
And to their end, countless hours of photoshopping pictures with little to do with the substance of ANYTHING and a healthy dose of insults for measure are the backdrop of their posts; and the basis of their argument with the insults and pictures as proof.
It reminds Howling Latina of the old joke, "I know I am right. I read it somewhere; yep, I wrote it down and then I read it."
So what is going on this morning? Well, we learn from a blogger that the Richmond Times-Dispatch has opined on the subject of bloggers and the latest evidence of Allen's foot-in-the-mouth disease. Bloggers should not, absolutely not concern themselves with Allen's eruption about his heritage.
Bloggers are supposed to be the independent voices that will set America free. Yet as Virginia daily sees, the more partisan among them (especially those on party or campaign payrolls) prolong the feeding frenzies and negativism that creative minds are said to despise. Regarding Allen’s ancestry, for example: Why were bloggers associated with Webb relentlessly pounding the story?Oh my; yesterday bloggers were the scourge in the media and today we're supposed to set America free.
Well, as any educated person who has ever taken a course in rhetoric knows, the basis of any persuasive argument is the credibility of a speaker; and included in this bundle of qualities that contribute is persona, "the mask or façade presented to satisfy the demands of the situation...the public personality."
So if the public personality of Allen is of some smiling guy on a horse named 'Bubba' with a cowboy hat, boots, flags, noose, chewing tobacco and all the accouterments of his role as Southern rebel; and Allen has a penchant for dividing folks into neat categories, "real" and "unreal," "us" against "them," Howling Latina thinks it's extremely germane for bloggers to expose the phony cowboy behind the empty suit in a little game of reality vs. made-up.
And about those photoshopped pictures, my dear GOP wingnuts, remember, "[i]n November, Virginia will elect a United States senator, not president of the third grade. Grow up."
I only read the MSM so I can do damage control...no serious investigative journalists are allowed in the current Corporate States of America....
Only those that will promote the Corporate agenda need apply for Corporate Media jobs.
Bloggers must be doing something right...but LOL...why would any serious blogger take directions from the Corporate MSM?
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