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Off-hand remark by senator causes flap
Tuesday, August 15, 2006; Posted: 8:13 a.m. EDT (12:13 GMT)
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- A volunteer of Indian descent working for Democrat Jim Webb's U.S. Senate campaign said Monday he felt insulted when Sen. George Allen called him a name that sounded like "Macaca" during a rally in western Virginia.
S.R. Sidarth, 20, spent last week following Allen's "listening tour" and filming the appearances for the Webb campaign, which distributed a video clip of Friday's appearance to reporters.
"This fellow over here with the yellow shirt -- Macaca or whatever his name is -- he's with my opponent," Allen said. "He's following us around everywhere."
Macaca is a term associated with a species of monkeys.
"This is not something we knew," said Allen campaign spokesman Dick Wadhams.
The name also could be spelled Makaka, which is a city in South Africa.
Wadhams said, however, that the name was a variation of "Mohawk," the nickname he said Allen campaign staffers gave Sidarth because he had a Mohawk haircut.
Whether the University of Virginia senior's haircut -- closely cropped around the temples and above the ears, but otherwise full -- qualifies as a Mohawk is open to interpretation. Sidarth said he does not consider it a Mohawk.
"It's grasping -- it's reaching," Webb spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd said of Wadhams' explanation. "This was a term meant to demean Sidarth and his presence there at the event."
Asked what he thought Allen meant by using the word Macaca, Sidarth said: "I took it to mean that was the first thing that came to his mind when he saw a person of color. It does have connotations in Hispanic cultures of being associated with a monkey."
Sidarth, who said he had introduced himself to the senator earlier in the week, said he felt Allen "was singling me out as a person of color when the rest of the audience was Caucasian." Wadhams said Sidarth was not the only nonwhite person at the rally in Breaks, Virginia, which is near the Kentucky border.
The video clip shows Allen telling the crowd: "Let's give a welcome to Macaca here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."
Sidarth was born and raised in Fairfax County.
Wadhams said Allen called attention to Sidarth simply to welcome him to "a place in Virginia Webb has never been to and probably never will be to."
University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato said Allen's remarks could damage Allen's efforts to position himself for a possible run for president in 2008.
"This is a comment that will be regurgitated a thousand times," Sabato said. "It was a clumsy, stupid gaffe, and it's this kind of thing that destroys presidential candidacies."
The words could be especially damaging when considered in the context of Allen's history of displaying the Confederate flag, Sabato said. Allen used to keep the flag in his living room, and he wore a Confederate lapel pin for his high school yearbook photo.
"People may read into this more than is actually there, but whose fault is that?" Sabato said.
Wadhams, meanwhile, questioned why Webb still has not apologized for what he said was an anti-Semitic flyer during the Democrat's primary campaign. The flyer featured a hook-nosed caricature of Webb's Jewish opponent with money overflowing his pockets.
"If they are so sensitive about stuff, how come they used something as despicable as an anti-Semitic flyer?" Wadhams said.
Denny Todd said Wadhams was rehashing a two-month-old story to try to divert attention from Allen's remarks.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/15/allen.volunteer.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest
Tuesday, August 15, 2006; Posted: 8:13 a.m. EDT (12:13 GMT)
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- A volunteer of Indian descent working for Democrat Jim Webb's U.S. Senate campaign said Monday he felt insulted when Sen. George Allen called him a name that sounded like "Macaca" during a rally in western Virginia.
S.R. Sidarth, 20, spent last week following Allen's "listening tour" and filming the appearances for the Webb campaign, which distributed a video clip of Friday's appearance to reporters.
"This fellow over here with the yellow shirt -- Macaca or whatever his name is -- he's with my opponent," Allen said. "He's following us around everywhere."
Macaca is a term associated with a species of monkeys.
"This is not something we knew," said Allen campaign spokesman Dick Wadhams.
The name also could be spelled Makaka, which is a city in South Africa.
Wadhams said, however, that the name was a variation of "Mohawk," the nickname he said Allen campaign staffers gave Sidarth because he had a Mohawk haircut.
Whether the University of Virginia senior's haircut -- closely cropped around the temples and above the ears, but otherwise full -- qualifies as a Mohawk is open to interpretation. Sidarth said he does not consider it a Mohawk.
"It's grasping -- it's reaching," Webb spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd said of Wadhams' explanation. "This was a term meant to demean Sidarth and his presence there at the event."
Asked what he thought Allen meant by using the word Macaca, Sidarth said: "I took it to mean that was the first thing that came to his mind when he saw a person of color. It does have connotations in Hispanic cultures of being associated with a monkey."
Sidarth, who said he had introduced himself to the senator earlier in the week, said he felt Allen "was singling me out as a person of color when the rest of the audience was Caucasian." Wadhams said Sidarth was not the only nonwhite person at the rally in Breaks, Virginia, which is near the Kentucky border.
The video clip shows Allen telling the crowd: "Let's give a welcome to Macaca here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."
Sidarth was born and raised in Fairfax County.
Wadhams said Allen called attention to Sidarth simply to welcome him to "a place in Virginia Webb has never been to and probably never will be to."
University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato said Allen's remarks could damage Allen's efforts to position himself for a possible run for president in 2008.
"This is a comment that will be regurgitated a thousand times," Sabato said. "It was a clumsy, stupid gaffe, and it's this kind of thing that destroys presidential candidacies."
The words could be especially damaging when considered in the context of Allen's history of displaying the Confederate flag, Sabato said. Allen used to keep the flag in his living room, and he wore a Confederate lapel pin for his high school yearbook photo.
"People may read into this more than is actually there, but whose fault is that?" Sabato said.
Wadhams, meanwhile, questioned why Webb still has not apologized for what he said was an anti-Semitic flyer during the Democrat's primary campaign. The flyer featured a hook-nosed caricature of Webb's Jewish opponent with money overflowing his pockets.
"If they are so sensitive about stuff, how come they used something as despicable as an anti-Semitic flyer?" Wadhams said.
Denny Todd said Wadhams was rehashing a two-month-old story to try to divert attention from Allen's remarks.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/15/allen.volunteer.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest
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