That simply proves that Allen has a good PR person and Speech writer.

"I hate to be a frequent comment troll..."

No you don't. Seriously dude, if that's what you like doing, cool, roll with it, and let people make their own determinations based on your history. Just don't pretend that you "don't like it." Nobody is forcing you to make the comments that you make.

I'm not trying to defend Allen against the macaca thing. I'm responding to Matthew's second paragraph.

As to Matthew's second paragraph, I just note that, it seems to me that if Allen's interest in the confederate flag means that Allen is racist, then Webb's praise of the confederate memorial makes Webb a racist too. Do you disagree?

I don't think that's an ad hominem attack on Webb. It's a comparison between Webb's racial attitudes and Allen's racial attitudes. Which seems to me perfectly legitimate, since those are the two people vying for the election.

. . . those Americans of African ancestry are the people with whom our history in this country most closely intertwines, whose struggles in an odd but compelling way most resemble our own, and whose rights as full citizens we above all should celebrate and insist upon. James Webb

Somehow -- at least to my ear -- those words sound different from calling someone a "macaca."

But then, what do I know.

Why don't you try to respond to the point Matt is making in the entire post...

But to your specific "allegation" that Webb is a racist because he visited a Confederate War memorial.  He said:

I found myself drawn to this deeply inspiring memorial, to contemplate the sacrifices of others, several of whom were my ancestors

His appearance there and comments in no way, shape or form was in praise of what the Confederacy stood for or a defense of it's symbol the "Stars and Bars".  He had ancestors who fought in the War of the States and was commenting on sacrifices that all soldiers make.  So all people who had ancestors who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War are racist if they express pride in sacrifices those ancestors made?  So what was Allen's reason(s) for flying the Confederate flag?  A flag I haven't seen Webb defend at all...   

What I find particularly bizarre about the whole incident is that Allen, with his seemingly calculated wanna-be redneck, good ol' boy vibe, still somehow found a way to get in trouble for making a racial slur in French. Surely, after freedom fries and all that else, that can't sit all that well with Allen's base, can it?

I hate to respond to a frequent comment troll and take his question seriously, but I actually think there's something that needs to be said about this.

Making excuses for the cause of the Confederacy, as Webb did... and as a great many Southerners of all political stripes have done... is a foolish and misguided thing to do. No matter how much they insist the Civil War wasn't about slavery, this is disingenuous. The Civil War itself was fought over the right of the Confederate states to secede from the Union. But the Confederate states seceded for only one major reason-- to preserve the institution of slavery.

If you don't believe me, read South Carolina's Articles of Secession. The first half is a legal argument about sovereignty. Once you get to the list of grievances, however, it becomes painfully evident that they were concerned about their sovereignty because those damn Yankees weren't returning runaway slaves and were passing laws to circumvent the Dred Scott decision. It becomes difficult to claim the Confederate cause was "freedom" without choking on the word.

On the other hand, Webb is almost certainly correct that most of the guys in grey were simply following what they believed to be their duty and defending their homes. Honoring the sacrifices made by Confederate soldiers is a perfectly decent thing to do when someone is standing at the Confederate Memorial.

I think criticism of Webb's statement is justified. He's making excuses, where none should be made. But, in context, this is a military man paying respect to fallen soldiers at a war memorial. It's a view that many non-racist Virginians hold. It fails to accept the moral failings of their ancestors, and that's a mistake. And coming from a non-native Southerner it's even less excusable. But there's nothing inherently racist about it. Hell, I'm from Indiana, and there's a statue at Tippecanoe erected to honor one of my ancestors who is noted for torching the last Shawnee village in the state. The South isn't the only part of the country with a checkered past. It's not always easy to strike the right balance between revering our history and coming to terms with its dark side.

But when a rich, redneck-wannabe kid in California flies the stars and bars on his pickup truck in the era of George Wallace, and then grows up to insult someone with a different skin color and imply that he is not a "real" American... he was not paying homage to fallen Confederate soldiers who died fighting to defend their homes from the torches of General Sherman. He was not honoring Virginia history. He was simply being a bigoted jerk.

I don't think one needs to be a "partisan" to detect the difference.