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What has struck me about this incident is that on the one hand we're to believe that the word "macaca" (which nobody heard of before this month) is a deeply offensive racial slur, yet newspapers have had no trouble using the slur in headlines.

The Washington Post has an editorial today headlined "Senator to 'Macaca: Sorry" a News 7 headline reads, "Allen lead evaporates after 'Macaca' flap," and so on.

If Allen used a term that was actually known as offensive to the general public, I don't think it would be plastered all over the headlines. I can't imagine headlines like: "Allen lead evaporates after 'kike' flap" or, "Senator to 'Kike': Sorry."

I've never been much of a fan of George Allen, because I've generally perceived him as a cookie-cutter politician, and this whole macaca incident reaffirms my view that he isn't ready for prime time. My sense is that Sidarth was sent by Webb to follow Allen around with a video camera in the hopes that he would do something stupid--which he did.

With that said, this whole controversy was clearly blown out of proportion, with the Washington Post having an A1 story today about Allen's apology to Sidarth.

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