It's not easy being a Republican running for election (or re-election) this fall. There's a bumbling Prez and all he stands for (Iraq comes to mind, but there's loads more), discontent with a do-nothing Republican congress and the general feeling that Republicans have had enough time to fuck everything up and now it's only fair that Democrats get a shot to prove their incompetence.

So let's say you're George Allen, senator from Virginia. An exceptionally popular guy in the Old Dominion--he was governor before he moved up the road to D.C.--so no one thought Jim Webb had a chance against him. Especially since Webb recently changed his party affiliation to Democratic (he was Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration) and had never run for office. Cakewalk for Allen, right?

That's what everyone thought, even as Virginia (not unlike its neighbor to the south) has become a bit more progressive in its politics of late. And until last week, that conventional wisdom seemed to be holding.

Well-financed campaigns assign "trackers" to follow the opposition. A tracker videotapes all official campaign speeches. And while they're certainly annoying--name one person who likes to stand up in public knowing every mistake will be plastered all over the airwaves--it seems to me that a mature person ought to be able to ignore them.

The Webb campaign assigned S.R. Sidarth to track Allen's events. Sidarth is a UVa student and was born in United States. Just so we're clear on that.

At a rally a week ago, Allen pointed at Sidarth and said, "This fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great. We're going to places all over Virginia, and he's having it on film and its great to have you here and you show it to your opponent because he's never been there and probably will never come."

So far, so good. Having a little fun at the expense of your opponent is all part of the game. Then, after whining about the money Webb was getting from down Californy way, Allen went back at Sidarth.

"Let's give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." Lots of laughter ensued.

A lot of folks have been trying to parse the word "Macaca." It is apparently a genus of monkey and also is an ethnic slur when uttered in French conversation. Allen says he was saying something about Sidarth's "mohawk" hairdo (note to geezer: shaved sides do not a mohawk make). Hmm. Then some folks brought up the fact that Allen used to hang a noose in a tree outside his law office back in the 1990s and has also professed something akin to romantic love for the Confederate Flag. Whatever. We are talking about Virginia, after all.

All the pundits (on all sides) have been focusing on "macaca." I suppose the best explanation for that is because it's the only thing Allen said that can be debated.

The "welcome to America" crap is the real issue. Sidarth was the only non-gringo in the crowd, and Allen said that Sidarth was somehow less of an American than everyone else present. Or, to be most generous, Allen was saying that an all-white gathering of Republicans is more American than a more heterogeneous gathering of Democrats in, say, Arlington.

Either way, the message is unambiguous. There is no way to spin out of "welcome to America." That phrase shows Allen's bigotry plain and simple. He looked at Sidarth, saw that he didn't look like anyone else in the room and then mocked him. And even if you take the more charitable view of that phrase (which is simple racial bigotry rather than a somewhat more complicated racial and anti-immigrant bigotry), there's really no way to defend what Allen said.

Throw in the rebel flag fetish and noose stringing, which are telling in their own ways, and those three words prove beyond a doubt that Allen himself has a lot to learn about the real America.

We don't look alike, we don't think alike and we certainly don't vote alike. But Americans are Americans. And Virginians are Virginians. And every single citizen deserves the respect of fellow citizens. You would think that a former governor and sitting senator would know that.

Obviously, you'd be wrong.

Jon Worley doesn't live in Virginia for a lot of good reasons.