How does his response to an issue that should have not been raised in the first place strike you? (My view? I won’t write it here but let’s just say that the way he responded adds more baggage. He has so much baggage TSA will need a separate branch for him when he goes to the airport.)
UPDATE I: We know Mr. Allen already has a blogger working with him, but we’ll offer him some better responses in case this vital issue comes up again:
- “The doctor who got a hold of me and told me ‘now cough’ could see that I’m not Jewish.”
- “I HATE Chinese food.”
- “I told you I’m not full-blooded Jewish 10 times…but for you, I’ll make it 8 times.” (Well, on second thought he’d better not use that one…or maybe he has already..)
- “Woody Allen, Jackie Mason and Adam Sandler don’t make me laugh.”
- “I wasn’t raised that way. For years I thought ‘the Hora’ was a woman who charges by the hour on Times Square.”
- “I have very little of that blood left in me. I never feel guilty, which is why I can so easily defend my record in the Senate the past few years.”
- “None of that heritage has stuck with me, you schmuck.”
UPDATE II: In all seriousness, Allen’s problem seems to be an inability to answer sensibly and thoughtfully when put on the spot. Just look at the written statement he issued later — one that could have answered the question and turned it into a non-story the first time.
Couldn’t he have AVOIDED a lot of problems for himself if he had said something like this earlier?
U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., yesterday acknowledged his Jewish ancestry, a day after angrily ducking a question about possible Jewish forebears in a debate with his Democratic challenger.
Allen said in a written statement that his mother, Etty, confirmed he is part Jewish after he read an Aug. 25 article by the Jewish Daily Forward exploring his roots. The article followed the controversy over Allen’s alleged racial remark to an Indian-American volunteer for Democrat Jim Webb….
….”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,” the Allen statement said.
The question then becomes: did he write it? What does he really believe? That’s a far cry from saying you love ham sandwiches.
His re-election race aside, the bigger question becomes: could the GOP seriously consider for higher office a man who so often shoots himself in the foot?
UPDATE III: The Jewish Daily Foward reports another Senator has chimed in:
Illinois Senator Barack Obama says it would be OK to ask him about his mother’s religious background.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.