Sen. Allen Apologizes for Offensive Remarks

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082301600_pf.html

Sen. Allen Apologizes for Offensive Remarks


Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) apologized directly to S.R. Sidarth today, telling the 20-year-old Democratic campaign staffer that he was sorry for offending him with remarks that have generated nationwide criticism for being racially insensitive.

Allen's telephone call to Sidarth was the first direct contact between the two since Allen was caught by Sidarth's video camera calling him "macaca" and derisively welcoming the Fairfax native to "America and the real world of Virginia."

Sidarth said Allen told him the apology was "from his heart."

"His main point was he was sorry he offended me," Sidarth, who started his senior year at the University of Virginia this week, said in an interview later. "He realized how much he offended me from the comments I made in the media."

[joemurphy]

1. Allen doesn't have a heart. How can the apology be heartfelt?

[saigon68]

32. The Great "Macaca" comment

[Greeby]

2. Oh bs

:nopity:

[tuvor]

3. Waitaminnit. They retracted the apology.

Flip-flop-flip!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1962350

[Bretttido]

7. Yep, he's performed a perfect Flippidy-Flop-Flip

[Supersedeas]

35. Trifecta on the Apology triptyk

[RDANGELO]

17. Actually, I think they are trying to play it both ways.

Allen makes the apology in person to please the people who were disgusted by his remarks, and his campaign manager says he has nothing to apologize for to satisfy all the bigots who support him.

[zreosumgame]

20. Bingo!

at no time did he apologize for the LIES he told trying to pretend he didn't say it. Screw the moran.

[clydefrand]

4. Yeah, right...from his aching heart because Webb is now

even with him in the polls...or nearly so. Scumbag...needs to get out of this state for good.

[OwnedByFerrets]

5. Is it really an apology

when you wait till the political pistol is against your temple?

[acmavm]

6. Sidarth should maybe call Allen's sister up and ask her what an

apology from him is worth.

[wakeme2008]

9. What happened between Allen and his sister

:shrug:

[Gman]

12. Doesn't matter

brothers pick on sisters then are MADE to apologize. Got a pattern here.

[acmavm]

13. Here...

<snip>
Explaining why she is scared of heights, Ms. Allen writes that “Ever since my brother George held me over the railing at Niagara Falls, I’ve had a fear of heights.”

Referring to George’s relationship with one of her boyfriends: “My brother George welcomed him by slamming a pool cue against his head.”

Referring to George’s early leadership skills, Jennifer wrote: “We all obeyed George. If we didn't, we knew he would kill us. Once, when Bruce refused to go to bed, George hurled him through a sliding glass door. Another time, when Gregory refused to go to bed, George tackled him and broke his collarbone. Another time, when I refused to go to bed, George dragged me up the stairs by my hair.”

Referring to George’s early career aspirations, Jennifer wrote “George hoped someday to become a dentist. George said he saw dentistry as a perfect profession - getting paid to make people suffer.”

-MORE-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/08/16/gop-senator-george-allen_n_27382.html

[wakeme2008]

14. Yipes this is getting better and better on this A__Hole..

:evilgrin:

[saltpoint]

8. I saw something about an apology being retracted, but don't know if

this call from Cement-Head to Mr. Sidarth came after that.

I wonder if one of Allen's chief staffers realized that his guy was dropping poll points like an avalanche, and there was a general holy-shit-we-better-do-somethin' moment in the office, followed swiftly by Cement-Head's call.

I was for Webb very strongly before this incident with Mr. Sidarth, and a hell of a lot more strongly for Webb now.

[stepnw1f]

10. Make Up Your Mind.... lol! (nt)

[tanyev]

11. "Ah'm so sorry my poll numbers went down!"

:cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:

[rpannier]

15. His main point is...

He's sorry he's receiving so much negative attention.
He's sorry more people know what a POS he really is.
He's sorry his numbers have gone down.
He's sorry people know about what he said.

[AlamoDemoc]

16. from Democracy NOW

Mark Potok, director of the intelligence project for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

MARK POTOK: Well, sure. I mean, essentially it’s a 25-year record of flirting with these sort of Confederate ideas -- really, not “sort of.” I mean, one of the highlights, at least in my mind, is when he was running for governor in ’93, or actually shortly after he was elected, and designated a Confederate History Month in Virginia. And the statement, I think, was quite amazing, the actual words that went with the declaration, in which he described the Civil War as, quote, "a struggle for independence and sovereign rights." You know, I think that kind of captures the whole thing. I mean, the man was governor of a state that includes Black people, although he doesn’t seem to understand that. You know, it’s just a remarkable kind of characterization of what the Civil War was about. You know, it’s very much what we see coming out of the neo-Confederate hate groups that we cover as part of our work.

There’s a long history that involves things like, you know, opposing redistricting that would have made it possible for a Black representative to be elected from Virginia for the first time since Reconstruction, joining and then un-joining, as it were, a club with a long racially exclusive history that many other governors had refused to join.

And it goes on from there. I mean, he’s very associated with the Confederate battle flag. I mean, as long ago as high school, he was wearing a pin in his lapel with this flag, and, you know, as has been widely reported, also had a flag at a certain cabin he had in Virginia, which he describes as part of a collection of flags. You know, I just find the explanations -- as you look at all this over time, each one of his kind of quasi-apologies has been quite ridiculous. You know, as SR Sidarth just pointed out, I mean, this series of shifting explanations from his staff and from himself, of this latest remark, are incredible. I mean, I think on the face of it, it’s virtually impossible to believe that suddenly he made up a nickname or somehow this popped into his head. As Salon pointed out, it was as if he were saying that he was speaking in tongues; this word had come to him somehow through the ether, and he was directing it at someone he perceived as his enemy.

AMY GOODMAN: On the issue of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday?

MARK POTOK: Well, he was, of course, one of many Southern politicians who opposed Martin Luther King's birthday. I think one of the more remarkable things he said at the time was that he didn’t want the holiday to be instituted, because Martin Luther King was not a Virginian. You know, obviously I think it hardly bears repeating that most other states in the Union have not felt that way at all. You know, the South, as well as the North, is filled with monument and streets named after Martin Luther King, and so on. I mean, you do not hear that argument, even in a place like Alabama.

The whole thing, at least to me, is reminiscent of the Trent Lott sort of series of fiascos of a few years ago. You know, I remember when Lott was exposed, actually by us, for having very close connections to the Council of Conservative Citizens, which is a white supremacist group, a descendent of the old White Citizens’ Councils. And his theories of shifting explanations -- he had no idea who they were; well, maybe he did -- you know, and it went on and on and on, until his relatives were quoted saying actually he was a longtime member. And you know, in Lott’s case, that didn’t really come back to roost until he made his comments at Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday, saying the Dixiecrats were right, and so on, and America would have been such a better place. That whole story just reminds me of this episode. I think we're seeing the real George Allen. I think that this is not some freak moment. It’s not a psychotic break. This is what the man really is. "


http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/22/1421222

[RCinBrooklyn]

18. Now Allen can go drop dead with a clear conscience. n/t

[AlCzervik]

19. "Sorry for offending you" notice he doesn't say

"I'm sorry i said that offensive remark, i'm an idiot" so he's not sorry he said it, only sorry it was caught on camera.

[LibDemAlways]

21. In case you missed it elsewhere, this isn't the first time

Allen has been forced to publically apologize for his racism.

In the Spring of 1970 he scrawled "Die Whitey" "Fuck Whitey" on the walls of his Southern California high school to make it look like the work of blacks from a rival school. He was caught, had to apologize over the school PA, and was suspended for a time.

Ryan Lizza recounts this incident in an exhaustive New Republic article he wrote last April called "Pin Prick." The story was corroborated by 5 classmates and a former school administrator. Allen has recently admitted to the graffiti, but it denies it was racist. I was in his class. It was.

[maddezmom]

22. kick

[underpants]

23. Allen phones apology to Webb aide (keeping it alive)

Sidarth accepts, but wonders 'why it took the senator so long'

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149190161063

Republican Sen. George Allen personally apologized yesterday for remarks he made to a young Democratic campaign worker nearly two weeks ago.

Allen phoned S.R. Sidarth at the University of Virginia, and they spoke for three or four minutes, Sidarth said.

--on W's fundraiser (private home) for Allen last night--
At a parkway intersection nearby, however, partisanship was in full blossom. Protesters and supporters of Allen held signs and called to passing drivers.

Another declared, "Hey George Allen, Welcome to the Real America."

--and yet another excuse--
Asked why it took Allen so long to offer the personal apology, Dick Wadhams, his campaign manager, said Allen had thought he would run into Sidarth last week.

--the comment from the Webb campaign is funny--

[DRoseDARs]

24. I wonder how long before THIS apology is retracted too... n/t

[TheCowsCameHome]

25. I don't think Mac Allen was being sincere.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

26. "run into Sidarth" ? ? ? ? ? with a campaign bus?

Anyone see a clip of Dean's comments about Allan? Priceless.

[underpants]

27. Link to thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2795015

[radfringe]

28. too late for apology IMHO

was it a REAL HEARTFELT apology, or a "I'm sorry because my campaign is in the crapper" apology?

[gratuitous]

29. Public insult, private apology

One of these things is not like the other.

The apology should be made in the same venue as the original insult was offered. At least, that's the way I was always taught. If you insult and humiliate someone in public, your apology should be made in the same circumstances. At least, that's what a real man would do. Not surprising that Mr. Allen is unaware of that.

[rodeodance]

30. he must have gott a call from Rove just prior to the visit from Bush

[yellowcanine]

31. Too little and way too late. A real apology means his campaign manager

has to retract his bullcrap line about this all being a media creation. Until that happens the saga will continue. In fact, I think Allen needs to fire a few people in his campaign that were promoting the "Mohawk = Macaca" nonsense. Essentially there is an ongoing coverup by the Allen campaign which negates all of the mea culpas Allen is offering up at every opportunity. And based on what Sidarth said, it still sounds as if Allen is focusing on Sidarth's reaction rather than his own actual misdeeds.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

33. are rumors that his Campaign Mang. even dumber than Allan true?

that would make sense.

[The_Casual_Observer]

34. He apologized so that he can say the episode is over & that

he apologized. Never mind that it happened in the first place.

[IronLionZion]

36. "pace of a wounded sea slug"!

BWAHAHAHA! You gotta love using Allen's own words against him!

[MasonJar]

37. I thought he had already un-apologized. "From the heart" is no

doubt correct since his campaign is oozing from every pore. Not only a bigot, but also a hypocrite!