Dirty politics.

Digging up sexist comments made by Webb from the 70's falls into that camp too. It is a fair question however if you base your vote on the candidates daughter's shoplifting record or relationship with estranged relatives. I guess.

But then again the Cons tried to exploit Kerry's sorta Jewish background to galvanize their base. Or the Dem;s using Bush's DWI in 1976 to their advantage.

Why anyone would run for office is beyond me.

HAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA...you and I saw two very different things here...you see a reporter asking an inappropriate question, i see a dude saying "no...i'm not a Jew. We're all of us Christians."

It's really nice to hear a Republican say "religion is not relevant"; I wish the rest of the GOP agreed with him.

While I don't agree with NDS's take on this one she is getting some support from the Comrade Trotsky wing of American conservatism (JPod son of NPod for example at the Corner roasted Allen).

While I think Allen will win the race in 2006, incidents like this and, more importantly the maccaca one, will keep the "not ready for primetime" grumbles in the background which is bad for Allen's future prospects.

Getting mad at the reporter for asking the question means that you don't understand the question. The question should have been phrased Why do you find it difficult to admit that you have some Jewish blood in you? Allen's fake outrage is nonsense; you usually can't get him to stop talking about religion.

um, so charles is right. it was one of the most awkward moments in recent history. for a guy who's always talking about his grandpa vs. the nazis, it was super-wierd that he got so defensive when asked about his ancestry -- as if being a jew was something malicious, like being an ex-con. freakish.

I totally disagree. Whose business is it what religion my mother's father was? It's just irrelevant. It actually reminded me of John Kerry several times bringing up Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter. It's not that Cheney was ashamed that his daughter was a lesbian, it's just there is no reason to bring it up at all.

If biography and family history is so irrelevant, Karol, why does every candidate for political office spend so much time on it? What you are saying is that political candidates should be allowed to craft their own personal narrative regardless of truth. The jewishness of his relatives isn't particularly relevant except to the extent that he apparently thinks it is politically expedient to refuse to admit to it in Virginia.

I'm not asking him to chair the Men's Club at Temple Beth-El in Fairfax but when asked about the jews on his mother's side he shouldn't act like the questions are about criminal conduct by a distant relative.

As for Mary Cheney, her sexual orientation was, and remains, a completely fair jumping off point for how Dick Cheney feels about the anti-gay positions in the Republican platform (and fund raising materials and vitriolic speeches) or whether he can, will or wants to separate the personal from the political.

I disagree with you on Mary Cheney but I'm glad you see that Allen's positions on Israel would be used against him because of his remote Jewishness...why else make the comparison?

I think it was fair to quiz Bush on Coke and Alcohol addiction, as it was Clinton on Philandering. But I do have a problem with a guy denying his roots. On the other hand, I also have a problem with a reporter asking anyone about their bloodline. The latter bothers me more.

I don't doubt that someone would be dumb enough to connect Allen's Jewish lineage to his positon on Israel. It would be the single greatest thing that could happen to his campaign. He would be allowed to be sort of anti-semitic and to cry anti-semitism.

As for why I made the connection, I didn't. You did. The Allen press conference reminded you of the Mary Cheney thing. I just reiterated my old position about why the comments about Mary Cheney were fair game politically. I do admit that there was a distinct undercurrent of trying to simultaneously argue for gay rights and to undermine Cheney via the homophobia among the Christian right that I found very, very distasteful - but Cheney made his own bedfellows. The first point was valuable on its own; the second is slimy and calculating but not out-of-bounds in a campaign that accused Kerry of cowardice based on his service in Vietnam.

Kerry made Vietname the centerpiece of his campaign, that's what made it fair game. Allen and Cheney did no such thing.

The topic is only fair game if you play the game fairly. Swift Boat was political genius but completely dishonest.

I disagree. Kerry was running on his 4 months in Vietnam. Swift Boats pointed to the fact that that he undermined the mission he sees as his reason for being president.

That would be true if the focus of Swift Boat was his post-war testimony. It was not. It was about his record as a soldier in-country.

Kerry's testimony about the atrocities committed during the war by American soldiers is what angered the Swifties enough to slander him but it was not the focus of the ads.

Anyway, one person's "undermined the mission" is another person's ... ah fuck, I'm not going to refight the Vietnam War here.