George Allen to speak at ethnic rally

The senator will speak at the third annual Fairfax County Republican Committee’s Ethnic Community Rally, along with the three other Northern Virginia Republican candidates: Rep. Frank Wolf, Rep. Tom Davis and Democratic opponent to Rep. Jim Moran, Tom O’Donoghue.

The event is arranged to “lessen the damage of Allen’s comments in Breaks, Va.,” said Kristian Denny Todd, a spokeswoman for Jim Webb, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.

“This [rally] has been in the planning stages since, like June,” said Dick Wadhams, Allen’s campaign manager. Though the news release listed every ethnicity participating in the event, he said it was not an effort to counter damage from an August incident where the senator referred to a Webb volunteer of Indian descent shadowing his campaign as “macaca.”

The word can be used a racial slur and also refers to a type of monkey.

Larry Sabato, an independent observer and director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, disagreed.

It is desperation. Allen can go to ethnic rallies from now until the cows come home. It is not going to wash away the stain of ‘Macaca’ and his other episodes of ethnic insensitivity,” Sabato said. “He is stuck with them for his career.”

Harold Pyon, chairman of the rally, said he “cannot tolerate people who make racial slurs,” but said he didn’t believe Allen made one toward the Webb volunteer. Pyon said he thought Macaca was a type of coffee.

“We know about Sen. Allen and the ethnic community. We’ve been working with him for a long, long time,” said Pyon, who said he has supported Allen since when the senator was governor.

“To suggest that this is an event designed to respond to something else is fictional,” said Eric Lundberg, county Republican chairman, who said that none of the 16 community organizations sponsoring the rally withdrew after Allen's statement.

“Most enthusiastically doubled their efforts,” said Lundberg, due to Democratic bloggers organizing a “Monkey Fest” featuring people in monkey suits and bananas outside of the Republican rally.

“Many Democrats in Northern Virginia think it is pretty hilarious,” said George Burke, chair of the 11th Congressional Democratic Committee and Fairfax County Democratic Committee spokesman, neither of which is a “Monkey Fest” sponsor.

The rally is “Republican damage control, but they aren’t doing a very good job at it,” Burke said. “They are once again highlighting the offensive remarks Allen made to that Fairfax County college student.”