WHAT NEXT?!

GEORGE FELIX ALLEN JR.


Let's see, he called his opponent's campaign aid "macaca" then give six different explanations and non-apologies over the incident. Then we find out that he's been awful cozy in the past with a certain affiliate of the Ku Klux Klan. He is later asked if he knew that his maternal grandfather is Jewish and he flips out about it. Just recently he has declared in no uncertain terms that he has never used the "n-word" though more and more people are coming forward to dispute that claim. To me, that's about enough scandal for three election cycles, but Felix apparently likes the challenge of fending off controversy after controversy. But I guess he was getting tired of the garden variety racist/antisemitic stuff because he has really upped the ante over the last day or so. Ready for this one? He spits (or expectorates - gotta work on my GRE vocabulary) at people. Female people, in fact.
There are currently four different stories currently floating around that chronicle Felix's disgusting habit of indulging in chewing tobacco and then expelling the brown spittle with excellent accuracy at the feet of women. Swing State Project has the whole story, including the four instances. Some quick excerpts:

Then, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia gathered up a glob of tobacco-laced saliva. He used his lips to squirt it out, as if he had practiced. The spit landed just at the tip of my shoe. He grinned, but didn't say a word.

...

While they were talking, [Felix] was chewing tobacco. He spit on the
ground and a fleck of brown spittle landed on my sister-in-law’s shoe.

...

... Allen turns away and spits a long brown streak of saliva into the dirt, just missing one of his constituents, a carefully put-together, blonde, ponytailed woman approaching the senator for an autograph. She stops in her tracks and stares with disgust at the bubbly tobacco juice that almost landed on her feet.

...

[Felix] made a few remarks to the crowd and then stood with his back to us, turning once to aim a jet of tobacco spit directly at our feet.

I urge you to go read the whole thing over at Swing State. It's great, if somewhat stomach-turning, stuff. It's just amazing the amount of controversy that surrounds this guy. And this is a guy who, until a few months ago, was an early front-runner for the GOP nod for prez in '08. God help us.

I can only imagine what he might do for an encore. I'm thinking that perhaps in his spare time he like to run over children with cerebral palsy or maybe he enjoys killing bunnies and kittens with various garden implements. I welcome any suggestions from my loyal readers over what will be the next "...-gate" to strike Felix's campaign.

I GOT YOUR "N-WORD" RIGHT HERE!

GEORGE FELIX "NINCOMPOOP" ALLEN JR.


Continuing to inspire some enterprising writer to pen the tale of "How I Went from '08 Presidential Contender to Losing my Senate Seat All in the Span of Two Months", George Felix Allen Jr. now has a new kick. I guess he thought that the "macaca" controversy had run its course, so he decided to rustle up a new one. Recently, a Salon article revealed that Felix has used the "N-word" in his past. Now before I'm drowned out with hundreds of "So?" in the comments section, Felix decided to do the extra dumb thing and claim that he has never ever never ever never used that word in the entire history of his world.
Two huge problems for Felix here; first, he's dealing in an absolute. Never? Never ever? C'mon, we all know his history, his fascination with the Confederacy and nooses, his relationship with the KKK or the CCC or whatever it's called. Given this, does he actually expect anyone to buy that he never used the "n-word"? Seriously?
Second problem I see is that he immediately painted himself into a corner. More and more people are coming out daily claiming that he has used the word, but since he already issued his "never ever" denial, there's no way for him to back out of it without looking like a big stupid racist liar. One would think that he had learned from the whole "macaca" thing that when you say something stupid, you quickly apologize for it and move on. It negates the point of attack and allows you to move on. Try this out, Felix: "Yes, I have used that word in the past. I'm ashamed that I have used it and I can assure you that I no longer use it. It's a dispicable word and it has no place in civilized society. Now, what I want to talk about is x and y...". Subject closed, move on. Instead, Felix issued his unrealistic denial and will now spend the next two-plus weeks denying it while more former associates come out of the woodwork to undermine his denial. Now this is a no-win for him. There is no one that is going to come out in support of Felix and with any kind of authority say that he or she is 100% certain that Felix has never said the "n-word". If he had issued a quick apology like the one above, then any further revelations would pretty much be moot. I'm no political consultant, but this campaign is operating like a middle school class treasurer campaign. Mistake after mistake has been made, and every indication is that it will cost Felix his current job, and further down the road, a chance at the presidency.

WHERE'S MY CHECK?

GEORGE FELIX ALLEN JR.


The Allen Senate campaign continues its slow burn to November defeat with this little tidbit from campaign manager Dick Wadhams (if ever there was a radio disc jockey name, that would be it) - he's whining about how "paid bloggers" (financed by his opponent, Jim Webb) won't let go of the fact that Felix's reaction when asked about his family's Jewish heritage was so out of left field. The short version: during a debate, a moderator asked his mother's father was Jewish. Felix flew off the handle and complained that the moderator was "making aspersions about people because of their religious beliefs."
Of course, the modus operandi of this campaign is that whenever there's a misstep, there will be a denial, a strong denial, a qualified apology, a rant about how the media is attacking them for no reason and finally another strong denial. I think that's basically how it went for the infamous Macaca controversy.
Well, it seems for this controversy they're right on schedule. In a way, I agree with Wadhams - it is sort of a nonissue. In the grand scheme of things, it matters little that Felix's grandfather was Jewish (except maybe to his KKK friends, but that's another story). It's just that their successive rants and denials make it impossible not for us bloggers to keep bringing it up, if for no other reason than their screeching over whatever controversy they're embroiled in during a given week just gets more and more preposterous.
Basically, this campaign may actually have the worst damage control operation this side of Joe Lieberman keystone campaigners. And that's really saying something. Bloggers live for this kind of stuff. The fact that this campaign has a proven track record of failing to effectively deal with even the simplest dustups is like catnip to us. So much so that many of us do it for free (though if someone with the Webb camp wants to cut me a check, just let me know).