Fairly unbalanced spin on Macaca gaffe

The Macaca story made its way onto the editorial page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch this morning. There’s a semi-clever Gary Brookins cartoon depicting Sen. George Allen as having a cowboy boot in his mouth, and there’s a piece called “The ’Macaca’ Gaffe.”

To its credit the editorial chides Allen for his remarks (below), which it termed “unworthy of a senator.” According to the editorial Allen said:

"‘This fellow over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He’s with my opponent. He’s following us around everywhere. And it’s just great. We’re going to places all over Virginia, and he’s having it on film and it's great to have you here and you show it to your opponent because’s [sic] he’s probably never been there and probably will never come. Let’s give a welcome to Macaca here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.’"

The editorial continued:

“Sidarth comes from Fairfax and attends the University of Virginia. ‘Macaca’ may have fallen on uncomprehending ears, but few considered it a compliment. It is in fact a pejorative and unworthy of a senator. If the ‘welcome to America’ applied to Sidarth, then it rated as an insult as well. As usually happens in these exercises, the Allen campaign’s excuses dug the Republican deeper into the hole...”

Then the editorial went into damage control mode; it even managed to shoehorn terrorists into the whirl:

“The news went national. The Website for The New York Times reports the story ranked among yesterday's most frequently e-mailed items. The whole thing threatens to become a feeding frenzy that ultimately makes everyone look ridiculous. The real world pays scant heed to these interruptions: For instance, terrorists have not used the occasion to declare a timeout.

That was followed by an off-the-wall apples-and-oranges attempt to neutralize the gaffe.

“Webb made a similar stumble during the Democratic primary when his campaign published a silly cartoon that depicted his Jewish opponent in imagery traditionally termed anti-Semitic. The general-election candidates now stand even in the dumb-moves sweepstakes...”

The cartoon to which the editorial refers was not drawn by Jim Webb‘s hand. It was created by a supporter. It was Allen himself who said, “Macaca.” There’s a huge difference.

On top of that the cartoon, actually a comic strip on a flier, was no more “traditionally” anti-Semitic than any other caricature of Harris Miller, Joe Lieberman, or any cartoon of a Jewish politician. Cartoons are what they are. So, the aforementioned Brookins ‘toon should not be seen as a slam on Allen’s religion (Presbyterian), either. Moreover, if one of Allen’s supporters had said “Macaca,” instead of him, it would not be news in the New York Times.

The only reason to compare that comic strip, which was mostly about Miller's career as a lobbyist/outsourcing advocate, and the already infamous “Macaca” gaffe is to play team ball. And, this time SLANTblog is throwing a penalty flag at the RT-D’s con to cover its candidate’s asinine attempt to get a cheap laugh at a campaign rally.

Perhaps the writer of the editorial would do better to ask himself how George Allen could get so loose and stupid in his lowbrow attempt at humor that he would say such a thing at a camera man rolling tape.