After a virtual tsunami of critical commentary, George "Macaca" Allen now says he "embraces his Jewish ancestry." While Senator Allen's Jewish ancestry has been public for some time, yesterday was the first time that the Virginia Senator publicly acknowleged it.
At a recent campaign debate, Senator "Macaca" Allen angrily refused to answer a question about his ancestry and accused the questioner of "making aspersions." (video)
In a statement released yesterday, Senator Allen says that he only recently learned of his Jewish ancestry by reading an article in The Jewish Daily Forward.
"The Forward published a story last month detailing Allen’s Jewish heritage. He did not return calls seeking comment for that article, and soon after insisted that his mother was “raised a Christian” and made no mention of any of her Jewish ancestors."
Some Jewish leaders said that Allen's angry reaction to the question about his Jewish heritage bothered them.
"He was visibly uncomfortable and called it an 'aspersion,' " said J. J. Goldberg, editor in chief of the Forward. "What is it that makes him so uncomfortable with it? It raises more questions about who the guy is."
"How does one not know that his grandfather was a Jew?" asked Samuel Heilman, a professor of sociology at the City University of New York. Heilman called it a "tempest in a teapot" but said it would be a big story to American Jews.
"It is the case that for many people who are so much a part of blue-blood America, it's hard to imagine there is a Jew in their cupboard there," Heilman said.
Meanwhile, the George "Macaca" Allen campaign-to-hell is attempting to do a little damage control by accusing liberal bloggers and the Democratic opponent of anti-Semitism!
Josh Marshall offers this summary of the Allen campaign:
[T]he guy who hangs out with white supremacist groups, randomly comes up with syllable combinations that happen to also be racial slurs when he wants to call out brown people and has some real issue with his Jewish ancestry that makes him come up with ridiculous fibs to the effect that he was the last one to discover his grandfather was Jewish - that guy is calling out his opponent for using anti-Semitism as a tool of his campaign.
Politics George Allen Race Bush Republicans Racism News Senate Election 2006 Virginia Senator Macaca Jewish Ancestry Anti-Semitism
