RICHMOND -- As Virginia voters prepare to go to the polls Tuesday to help choose the Republican nominee for president, state and national party leaders are left wondering: What if former senator George Allen had never uttered the word "macaca"?
After years of preparing for a 2008 presidential run, including trips to Iowa and New Hampshire and formation of a national network of donors, Allen's use of the word on Aug. 11, 2006, changed the landscape of the GOP nominating contest.
"The most important word uttered in the Republican presidential primary has not been terrorism or taxes, not faith or family, " GOP strategist Dan Schnur wrote recently in the Los Angeles Times. "Rather it was macaca."
Post staff writer Tim Craig's 29-paragraph article was placed below the fold on the Metro section front page as part of the Post's coverage of the upcoming February 12 "Potomac Primary" for Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
Since Allen's favored candidate, Fred Thompson, is out of the running, there's little reason to spend precious ink beating the dead horse that is Macaca-gate. Unless, of course, the aim is to twist the knife into conservatives in general and Allen in particular.
