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Can You “Tar” Someone With Something That Doesn’t Matter?

As a Jew, I found Fox’s question profoundly offensive. Trust me, the wounded minority card is not one that I play with much frequency. But the attempt to “tar” Allen as a Jew in a southern state was at the very least disturbing, and I actually consider it sickening. ~Dean Barnett Who said the woman […]

As a Jew, I found Fox’s question profoundly offensive. Trust me, the wounded minority card is not one that I play with much frequency. But the attempt to “tar” Allen as a Jew in a southern state was at the very least disturbing, and I actually consider it sickening. ~Dean Barnett

Who said the woman was trying to “tar” anyone?  She was asking a question.  Good grief.  You’d think we were in 16th century Castile and there was a question of barring those with “impure” blood from positions of power!  Not only was it a legitimate question, it was a question derived from a news story in The Forward, which is a magazine some might consider rather amenable to Jewish Americans.  If the entire subject is irrelevant, then there was no harm in asking.  If it was relevant, there is nothing wrong in asking. 

As a reporter, Ms. Fox was seeking out information that Allen, a public figure, has been reluctant to give (for whatever reason).  Clearly it doesn’t really matter where Allen is part-Jewish, but why is it somehow off-limits?  Since the entire, ridiculous “macaca” incident, it has become at least tangentially relevant that his mother came from French Tunisia, where such slurs were used, and, therefore, it was somewhat relevant what Allen’s family history in Tunisia was. 

It might be worth noting that none of this would have become a focus of this race had Allen not chosen–and he is entirely responsible for this–to belittle and mock a Webb campaign employee simply because he wanted to do so.  I have argued in the past against the excessive piling-on of the anti-prejudice brigades, and I am convinced that this sort of enforcement of purity of thought and attitude, as defined by such people, is damaging to the general quality and vibrancy of political debate.  But Allen could have saved himself a lot of grief had he chosen to ignore the Webb staffer following him around the state or simply been forthright in handling the aftermath to this absurd controversy.  Instead, he allowed it to linger on and continued to compound it with things like his odd performance on Monday.

It is strange in the extreme to regard that question as an attempt to “tar” anyone with anything, unless you sincerely believe that Virginians are of such a mind that they would turn on Allen were he to reveal this information about his heritage.  Frankly, that’s an insult to the overwhelming majority of Virginians, for whom this doesn’t matter one way or the other.  The attempt by Allen apologists to make this question into a kind of political hit comes off sounding forced and phoney.  It’s “sickening” to ask Allen about his mother’s background?  Then what does that say of all the people who have delved into the life of Mitt Romney’s great-grandfather and the frequent focus on Romney’s Mormonism as a potential political liability?  Is that also “sickening,” or is that just routine journalism?

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