WashPost Front-Pages Allen 'Macaca' Comment for Second Day

By Tim Graham | August 16, 2006 | 07:16

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The fall campaign period for The Washington Post has clearly begun, as the Post has judged Sen. George Allen's "macaca" remark to be worthy of the front page again on Wednesday. This installment notes that "Democrats, left-wing bloggers, and civil rights groups called him 'insensitive' and 'racist,' while some conservatives called him 'foolish' and 'mean.'" The story ends by quoting National Review editor Rich Lowry from The Corner yesterday saying Allen shows a "mean streak." But there's more proof of the double-standard on demeaning Indians. On January 7, 2004, Sen. Hillary Clinton apologized for a bizarre joke about how Mahatma Gandhi ran a gas station in St. Louis. The Post buried her apology on page C-3 in the "Names and Faces" gossip column, with just 200 words:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized yesterday for joking that Mahatma Gandhi "ran a gas station down in St. Louis." The New York Democrat made the remark Saturday at a fund-raiser in St. Louis for Senate candidate Nancy Farmer while Clinton was introducing a quote from Gandhi. Many in the crowd of 200 laughed, and Clinton said: "No, Mahatma Gandhi was a great leader of the 20th century." She then quoted the Indian independence leader as saying: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
The former first lady called her introduction "a lame attempt at humor" and insisted it was not based on any stereotype about certain ethnic groups. "I have admired the work and life of Mahatma Gandhi and have spoken about it many times," Clinton said. "I truly regret if a lame attempt at humor suggested otherwise."
Michelle Naef, administrator of the Memphis-based MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, credited Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, with "supporting the Gandhi message," but added that Saturday's remarks "could be incredibly harmful." "I don't think she was in any way trying to demean Mahatma Gandhi. To be generous to her, I would say it was a poor attempt at humor."

Generosity is clearly the last thing the Post has in mind for Allen.

PS: While the Post tries to make controversy over Allen's warm heart for the Confederate cause, Byron York at The Corner today notes Allen's opponent has kept quite about Allen's Confederate paraphernalia for a reason: he's quite a Confederate sympathizer himself.