Senator Macaca-->Member of the Tribe

When we last left the Virginia's junior Senator George Allen, he had pumped up a rally by calling S.R. Sidarth Macaca and welcomed him to America though Sidarth was born and raised in Virginia. A media frenzy broke out, as it should anytime a leading politician attacks people with racist slurs.

The Forward, a national Jewish weekly, tracing its history to lefty yiddish speaking immigrants, published a fascinating angle. Allen claimed he had made up a word based around Sidarth's hairstyle and pointed out that Macaca sounded like mohawk. Several media outlets determined that macaca was in common usage as a racial slur by whites, especially french speaking whites, in Africa and was connected to the colonial legacy. It turns out that Allen's mom is French Tunisian. What the Forward's article showed, that other media outlets didn't figure out, was that Allen's mom is likely Jewish, as she is a member of the storied Sephardic Lumbroso clan.

The Forward article said that:

Allen’s mother, Henriette (Etty), whose maiden name was Lumbroso, is indeed Francophone and Tunisian born, a heritage that forms a romantic theme in “Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach’s Daughter” the memoir of Allen family life written by Allen’s sister Jennifer. What’s more, it is likely that she’s Jewish by birth, although no acknowledgment of that heritage appears in the memoir. Allen’s campaign spokesman, Bill Bozin, did not return several detailed messages, left over two days, that asked what the senator and his family know about his mother’s heritage...Though Etty Allen seems not to have dwelled on it during her years in the spotlight as a coach’s wife, she comes from the august Sephardic Jewish Lumbroso family. Her father, who was the main importer of wines and liquors in Tunis — including the Cinzano brand — was known in France, where he lived after World War II, as part of the family, according to French Jewish sources. If both of Etty’s parents were born Jewish — which, given her age and background, is likely — Senator Allen would be considered Jewish in the eyes of traditional rabbinic law, which traces Judaism through the mother.

So what does this all mean? Is Allen a jew?
The answer of course depends on who one asks.

The normative orthodox standard for status as a jew is whether one's mother had that status at the time of that person's birth. If the mother was not halachically (according to jewish law) Jewish than a conversion is necessary to be considered jewish under the traditional system of jewish law.

According to the Reconstructionist movement to be Jewish a person must 1) have at least one Jewish (biological?) parent, and 2) be raised in a jewish manner with public recognition thereof (was there a bar/t mitzvah? a naming ceremony? etc).
I thought it would make sense to setup a matrix comparing Recon and Ortho standards. In some ways the Recon standard is more stringent and in some ways the Ortho standard is more stringent. George Allen, for instance, would not be considered a Jew by the Recon approach but would be considered Jewish by the Ortho standard. He considers himself an evangelical Christian for what it's worth. Here is the table:

	Jewish According to Ortho Standard	Not Jewish According to Ortho Standard
Jewish Accordining to Recon Standard	Me	Several Rabbis in Reform and Recon Movement with Jewish fathers and non-jewish mothers
Not Jewish According to Recon Standard	George Allen	Mel Gibson (crosses fingers)

I don't consider Allen a Jew, and I think the Recon standard (which i think is now also the reform standard) makes a lot more sense. But, hey, that's no surprise.

Allen Suggests That Being Asked Whether You Are Jewish is an Aspersion

The Virginia Senatorial debates have started and they have been quite entertaining.

It seems that the progressive crew is scoring the meet the press showdown for Webb. A somewhat balanced quote from Raising Kaine:

*Allen is polished, but there's nothing really there. Webb isn't as polished, but there's a great deal there. Personally, I strongly prefer that a person of substance, not an empty suit spewing his party's mindless talking points, represent me in the U.S. Senate.

*Webb made it clear that he endorsed George Allen in the past because he thought at the time we'd get some good leadership out of him. Unfornately, we have not. Basically, Allen and Bush have led us into a "strategic blunder of historic proportions," as well as a "busted" budget and many other problems.

The big news though comes from a rediculous outburst.

Basically Allen was asked to comment on the report that his mother was Jewish. Though it isn't explicitly stated, I think the report is the Forward article that I blogged last week.

Wonkette's response is on-point:

This creeps us out on so many levels. The audience booing the very idea of Senator Macaca maybe being Jewish (or the audacity of asking him about it). And George Allen — whose mother was, yes, of the prosperous and well-known Jewish Lumbroso family — clearly so shocked — shocked! — at the question that he can’t bring himself to just fucking say “yes, my mom was a Jew, that’s why I bring up the fact that my grandfather was in a fucking concentration camp.” No, instead he suddenly (and temporarily, one presumes) becomes a First Amendment absolutist of a stripe we’ve never seen before: one who takes “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” to mean “the press doesn’t have a right to ask me if anyone in my family was ever a member of the Tribe in front of my milky-white constituents.”

In short, asking me if I am Jewish may be irrelevant, perhaps detracting from important issues facing Virginia/The USA/Our World, but please don't suggest that it is an aspersion. It is at worst a point of inconvenience for a fundamentalist chirstian to be a full-halachic jew but it ought to be a point of connection with the diversity of this country and a way to relate to the increasing number of americans who have blended heritage. So Mr. Macaca, it sounds like you really are a self-hating jew. I wish you'd get as excited about freedom of religion for this nation* as protected under the Constitution as he is excited about using that hallowed document incorrectly in a press sponsored debate.

*FYI, Allen recieved a 20% score from the ACLU which includes a prominant Freedom of Religion category.

Macaca's Other Shoe

Well, the second shoe dropped in the Senator George Macaca Allen (R-VA) yesterday. The NYTimes is reporting that he has confirmed his jewish ancestry:

The turbulent re-election campaign of Senator George Allen took another unexpected turn Tuesday when Mr. Allen, a Virginia Republican, issued a statement confirming his Jewish ancestry.
“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,” Mr. Allen said in a statement.

I suppose this is a good sign. I think the delay was probably due to the need to conduct several focus groups to vet different approaches. Good use of time and moral conviction.

Before the question arose in the debate, Mr. Allen had mentioned that a grandfather had been incarcerated by the Nazis. He said in his statement that he had never known the circumstances surrounding that chapter in his family history.

Allen knew that his grandfather was in a Nazi camp but not that he was Jewish. That's odd. Not sure it passes the smell test. Did he think he had Gypsy heritage? Gay forebarers? Communists? Why did he think his grandfather was in the Nazi camp anyway?

Senator Macacawitz

The George Allen situation just keeps getting weirder. RawStory has this:

Allen's office has rescheduled a hearing until the day after Yom Kippur, the holiday on which the hearing was originally scheduled. The change was reported in today’s edition of ROLL CALL.

So, a few days after saying he was a christian, that his mother was a christian and that people shouldn't make religious aspersions, the Senator is clearing the calendar on Yom Kippur. What could have possibly happened to yield this outcome?

“He’s Jewish and Monday is Yom Kippur,” explained Brynn Slate, spokeswoman for the National Association of Women Business Owners, completely matter-of-factly to HOH.

“The date was set and then Michele contacted one of his staff because she had read that he had sort of — I don’t know what you would call it — he had just announced that he’s newly Jewish,” Slate told us. “So Michele contacted them to ask if they would want to change it because of the holiday.”

Amazing!

Unrelated but hysterical is the following blurb:

ROLL CALL also reports that a new nickname for Allen, "Sen. Macacawitz," was overheard at a party recently. Allen came under fire a few weeks ago for calling a man of Indian descent, "macaca," which is sometimes used as a racial slur.

An Exciting Inflection Point in American Politics

You may have heard that Senator George Allen (R-Va) recently called a South Asian American staffer of his opponent Macaca. The use of this racial slur has been well documented in Virginian and national media. The first polling since the reports of the Macaca incident have come out.

The polling before the incident showed that Allen was ahead of the main challenger, Democrat Jime Webb, by 11 points.

Since the racial slur how many points is Allen ahead?

a) 17

b) 14

c) 11

d) 8

e) 5


The answer is a pleasant surprise. 5! This is good news. When Senators make racial slurs, it is now bad for politics. A step in the right direction indeed.

[hat tip-politicalwire]

The Weekend in Politics

While I was in New York City, a lot of Americans swung their support to democrats.
This from PoliticalWire:

Democrats Gain in Senate and Gubernatorial Races

A new WSJ/Zogby Interactive Battleground States poll bodes well for a number of Democratic Senate and gubernatorial candidates. Among the highlights:

• Jim Webb (D) now leads Sen. George Allen (R-VA) 47.9% to 46.6%
• Jack Carter (D) and Jim Pederson (D) each trail by four points in their respective races against Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
• Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) beats Ned Lamont (D) 49.4% to 39.4%
• Dina Titus (D) leads Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) 46.8% to 44.1% in Nevada’s gubernatorial race

Before the Macaca comment the other week senator Allen (R-VA) was leading by eleven points. Now the incumbent is lagging challenger Jim Webb. Carter and Pederson were both down by 20 or more points in the last few months, now each is down only 4 to a well-funded, well-known, disgusting, sitting senator.

Maybe I should go to NYC more often.

WaveTime: Articles on Endangered Republicans

Lots and lots of dangerous, troubling republicans are on the rocks. We may be able to send the majority of them to early retirement. Here are some helpful resources courtest of chris bowers over at mydd.com:

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

Bad News for Hillary

Today, as I do most sundays, i played in the intense/chill ultimate frisbee game in lovely Malcolm X Park. I was rather late as i was in philadelphia for my sister's graduation. Following the game i was unlacing my cleats and changing to clogs. A police car pulled up and the guy asked what was in my nalgene as i was drinking. he was pleased to discover that it was gatorade. we got to talking and Officer Robert Thomas had all sorts of interesting things to say. We spent some time talking about trucks, he has a F250/diesel engine. Eventually, as often happens in the district, the conversation turned to politics. A half hour later we were fully invovled in the 2008 question. Officer Thomas lives in Virginia and might be thought of a moderate republican. he voted for mark warner but also jerry kilgore, james gilmore, and george allen is the last several governor races. Robert suggested that he would vote for Warner because he is a good guy and was a terrific governor and knows how to build compromises.
I haven't really thought through whether we need to reach as far right as Officer Thomas but it was an interesting conversation and i was glad to have had it.

We also talked a bit about Hillary and agreed that neither of us thought she was a good democratic candidate. In the last several months lots of people have been talking about Hillary as a walk to be the Democratic candidate for president in 2008. It looks like it may not be as easy as folks thought. Rawstory reports that she is polling behind Edwards in Iowa. Hopefully this will help derail the Hillary Express. She is building a reputation as a powerful broker in the senate. I hope she continues in that role.

Today Jackon Pollock tommorrow George "Yiddishe" Allen

I ran into an amazing jackson pollock website a couple months back: http://www.jacksonpollock.org/.

according to wiki, pollock was "was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement. His work was a great influence in 20th century art."

jacksonpollock.org is a make-your-own pollock. when you click the mouse button the color changes, it traces the line you draw with the mouse, the faster you go the thinner the line. it's a lot of fun, check it out.