CNN’s Cafferty Laments George Allen’s Lead in Polls; Attacks His Character

Jack Cafferty, the CNN host of "The Cafferty File" segment of "The Situation Room," Tuesday asserted that Virginia Senator George Allen doesn’t "have much" character and lamented the fact that Allen is leading his opponent in the polls. He derided a new advertisement by Allen that calls for voters to focus on his stand on the issues:

Cafferty: "Allen doesn’t want voters to focus on his character, because it’s becoming more and more apparent in recent weeks that he may not have much. There was the time he called an Indian American volunteer from his opponent’s campaign ‘macaca’ and welcomed him to America. Allen’s been accused of using the N-word to refer to blacks. He denies ever doing that.

He’s been in the Senate for six years, but voters just learned a few weeks ago that he’s Jewish. He claims his mother never bothered to tell him. Sure.

And the Associated Press reports that for the last five years, Allen has not bothered to tell Congress about stock options that he got for being a director of a high tech company in Virginia. Allen says he did not report the stock options because he saw them as worthless. When his lawyer was told that Senate ethics require that stock options be reported regardless of their value, his lawyer said he was unfamiliar with that provision. You want to know why things are so screwed up in Washington D.C.? In spite of all the things I just mentioned, Allen is leading in the polls, four weeks before the election.Maybe Allen is on to something, maybe character doesn’t matter to Virginia voters."

Cafferty often tries to portray himself as an equal opportunity curmudgeon, someone who will speak his mind about power. He opened the Allen segment by noting that a October 9 debate was the last one scheduled between the two Virginia candidates. "The voters are grateful that’s over," he observed. However, the above piece, which aired at 4:22p.m. on October 10, showcased the real Cafferty, a committed left-wing ideologue. He mentioned the allegations that Allen used the N-word in the early 1970s, but completely ignored the allegations that his Democratic opponent, James Webb, also uttered such slurs.

Finally, considering that Cafferty essentially called for a political candidate’s defeat, is it not time for the cable network to include an onscreen graphic that labels his segment as opinion?