{"id":8511,"date":"2006-09-20T09:10:10","date_gmt":"2006-09-20T13:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8511.html"},"modified":"2006-09-20T09:10:10","modified_gmt":"2006-09-20T13:10:10","slug":"george-allens-jewish-ancestry-day-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/george-allens-jewish-ancestry-day-three\/","title":{"rendered":"George Allen’s Jewish ancestry — Day Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following up on yesterday’s item<\/a>, I never would have expected the religious background of Sen. [tag]George Allen[\/tag]’s (R-Va.) family to be of any interest whatsoever, but in the latest sign of a very clumsy campaign, the senator is dragging this story out<\/a> a little more.<\/p>\n

Virginia Sen. George [tag]Allen[\/tag] (R) said for the first time publicly yesterday that he has Jewish ancestry, a day after responding angrily to an exchange that included questions about his mother’s racial sensitivity and whether his family has [tag]Jewish[\/tag] roots. […]<\/p>\n

In a statement released by his campaign yesterday, Allen said he was proud to have recently discovered that his grandfather, an anti-Nazi resistance fighter in North Africa, was part of a well-known Jewish family.<\/p>\n

“I was raised as a Christian and my mother was raised as a [tag]Christian[\/tag],” Allen, 54, said. “And I embrace and take great pride in every aspect of my diverse heritage, including my Lumbroso family line’s Jewish heritage, which I learned about from a recent magazine article and my mother confirmed.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have a hard time understanding why the Allen campaign is mishandling such a simple issue so poorly. Even the statement fudges the issue — Allen almost certainly didn’t learn about his Jewish ancestry “from a recent magazine article.” Josh Marshall noted<\/a>, “[G]iven that Allen has long known that his grandfather (after whom he’s named) spent part of World War II in a Nazi concentration camp (or as Allen rather distantly phrases it, “was incarcerated by the Nazis”), it really does strain credulity to believe that the idea that he might be Jewish never crossed his mind.”<\/p>\n

Moreover, TNR’s Ryan Lizza spoke<\/a> to a veteran Virginia columnist in August who explained, “It’s funny, but the only time that George Allen ever wanted a correction from me in 27 years of covering his races was when I wrote about his mother’s Jewish family origins. He insisted, through a press secretary, that his mother was raised a Christian.” Just learned about his Jewish roots from a recent magazine article? I don’t think so.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the strangest element of this story is how the Allen campaign is lashing out against everyone else, accusing reporters, writers, Dems, and critics of bigotry.
\n<\/p>\n

Yesterday, [Allen campaign manager Dick Wadhams] accused Webb’s campaign and liberal bloggers of anti-Semitism for raising the issue of the senator’s religious background.<\/p>\n

Bloggers, some of whom are on Webb’s staff, spent yesterday writing furiously about the debate question and Allen’s answer. “What does Allen have against Jews?” one headline read on a national liberal blog.<\/p>\n

“Introducing religion at all into the debate was inappropriate. It makes no difference what anybody’s religion is,” Wadhams said.<\/p>\n

Wadhams also accused Webb’s campaign of mailing an anti-Semitic flier to Virginia voters during the state’s Democratic primary this year. That flier depicted Webb’s Jewish opponent, Harris Miller, with money coming out of his pockets.<\/p>\n

“They have been continuing that anti-Semitic strategy through their paid bloggers,” Wadhams said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First of all, the flier against Miller<\/a> mocked his wealth, not his faith. Secondly, for the campaign of a confederate-flag-waving, noose-hanging, racist-befriending, macaca-smearing Republican to accuse anyone<\/i> of bigotry is almost comical.<\/p>\n

I’ve heard the buzz<\/a> that Allen’s campaign manager, Dick [tag]Wadhams[\/tag], is supposed to be the next Karl Rove-like genius of GOP politics. I have to say, at this point, I’m unimpressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following up on yesterday’s item, I never would have expected the religious background of Sen. [tag]George Allen[\/tag]’s (R-Va.) family to be of any interest whatsoever, but in the latest sign of a very clumsy campaign, the senator is dragging this story out a little more. Virginia Sen. George [tag]Allen[\/tag] (R) said for the first time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}