Bush Helping Lawmaker Who Used Racist Term

[notadmblnd]

President George W. Bush is raising cash for Republican Sen. George Allen Wednesday despite the Virginia senator's recent remark about an opponent's campaign worker of Indian descent.

Allen has apologized for the incident, in which he saw the college student videotaping him at a rally and called him "macaca," a term many consider racist. It is a slur often used against African immigrants.

When news of Allen's original remarks to S.R. Sidarth first spread, the senator described his comments as a humorous attempt to poke fun at his Democratic challenger, James Webb. The senator had singled out a Webb volunteer of Indian descent who was filming him at a campaign stop, called him "macaca," and said, "Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."

Sidarth was born in Virginia of Indian parents. But Allen said he meant no offense and didn't know "macaca" is a genus of monkey. He said he just made the word up.

http://www.wsoctv.com/politics/9722116/detail.html

on edit... wrong headline

[Laughing Mirror]

1. Not only that, but ...

On Tuesday, the Secret Service asked Virginia officials if they would be kind enough to shut down all of the HOV lanes on I-395 from 1 to 7 p.m. the next day so President Bush could get where he needed to be, according to state officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussing the president's travel.

The request was made ahead of a fundraiser for Sen. George Allen (R) held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at a house near Mount Vernon -- a good hour's drive from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. during a typical rush hour.

The request came into Virginia's Smart Traffic Center on Tuesday morning, one official said. "We were sort of dealing with it all day," the official said.

All day because they couldn't shake the image of what closing the HOV lanes would do: Buses that normally use the high-speed lanes would have to be rerouted or canceled; commuters who hitch rides in carpools would be stranded; and thousands of cars would be added to the congested regular lanes of I-395.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/24/AR2006082401627.html

[FSogol]

2. * campaign visits are going to put the final nail in the coffin of a lot

repub campaigns. Bring on the visits!

And we could have called the massive traffic jam, the Felix-Allen Jam.