Salon.com > George Allen

George Allen defended racial song

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 23:30:00 +0000

Virginia Republican Senate candidate George Allen is perhaps best known nationally for calling a Democratic tracker a racial slur during his 2006 Senate campaign. That year, Ryan Lizza reported in the New Republic that Allen kept a “noose hanging on a ficus tree in his law office” and admitted to “prominently displaying a Confederate flag in his living room” when he ran for governor in 1993. This year, he’s managed to avoid embarrassing race issues, despite the best efforts of liberal critics to draw attention to his record.

But a video resurfacing today could make race an issue in the last two days of the campaign. The video shows Allen, then a member of the Virginia General Assembly, defending a song with racially insensitive lyrics. The song, “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” became the state’s official song during the Jim Crow era. In the 1990s, there were several attempts to retire the song or change its lyrics.

Some candidates mum on tough policy questions

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 12:52:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — Curious what Virginia Republican Senate candidate George Allen thinks about his own party's law that forces women seeking abortions to have ultrasounds? Too bad. He refused to say during a recent debate.

How about whether Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Richard Carmona would support Majority Leader Harry Reid next year? Carmona's not talking about that. Former Maine Gov. Angus King has nothing for you on whether he'd side with Republicans or Democrats if his independent Senate bid works out. And Paul Ryan's proposed changes to Medicare? Not relevant, said Republican House candidate Chris Collins of New York; not going to answer, said Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel of Ohio.

"I'm someone who looks forward and not backward," says Collins, who's trying to unseat Democrat Kathy Hochul in New York's most-watched House race. "And the Ryan budget is in the past."

Thanks for the questions, but these and other candidates are just flat-out refusing to reveal where they stand on sensitive matters of public policy. Their likely calculus: No answer is better than one that alienates critical voter groups — like women or seniors.

Virginia GOP branch won’t remove Obama “witch doctor” pics

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:53:00 +0000

The Mecklenburg County Republican Committee refuses to take down a series of race-baiting pictures of President Obama from its Facebook page, despite the requests of the Virginia Republican Party.

The Washington Post reports that the state GOP ordered the MCRC to remove the pictures, which depict various anti-Obama and birther messages (such as, "vote for the American"), and one infamous picture that depicts Obama as a witch doctor. The pictures have been up for several months, but got a bunch of attention after Senate candidate George Allen stopped in the area.