RUSH: When George Allen made his famous "macaca" comment, on what page did the Washington Post run that story? It was the front page, right? and like for six days in a row or something like that. I mean, it was front page, big-time. In this latest brouhaha, supposedly uttered racial epithets out there, such distinguished eyewitnesses -- sorry, such distinguished "hearsay witnesses" as Larry Sabato, went on television and said, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He did that all the time." Allen has denied it. (Allen's Democrat opponent) James Webb has admitted it! That story hasn't been written. So I'm reading the Washington Post today. I go through the A section, and I didn't find the story I was looking for. I was told there was a big story about this involving Webb.
So I said, "Well, it's obviously here, the Webb and Allen campaign, that's important to the Washington Post. I'll look at the front page," and I didn't see it on the front page. I said, "Well, maybe I'm missing it." So I looked again for it. I didn't see it on the front page. I didn't see it anywhere in the A section. So the front page of the B section, however, I did find the story: "Webb Denies Ever Using Word as Epithet -- Democratic Senate candidate James Webb on Wednesday sought to explain remarks he had made a day earlier, in which he refused to say whether he had used the 'N-word,' but he insisted he has never used it as a racial epithet aimed at anyone.
"'I don't think that there's anyone who grew up around the South that hasn't had the word pass through their lips at one time in their life,' he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Tuesday. 'If you read "Fields of Fire," that word and a lot of other words are in the book.' 'Fields of Fire' is a novel Webb wrote about the Vietnam War. Spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd said Webb, an author and former Marine, 'did not want to make any blanket statements that he has never, ever uttered the word. Jim has not used the word directed at another person. He's never used it himself as a racial slur.'" Well, that may not be the case. "Webb's comments to the Times-Dispatch prompted Allen campaign officials to direct a reporter to Dan Cragg, a former acquaintance of Webb's, who said Webb used the word while describing his own behavior during his freshman year at the University of Southern California in the early 1960s. Webb later transferred to the U.S. Naval Academy.
"Cragg, 67, who lives in Fairfax County, said on Wednesday that Webb described taking drives through the black neighborhood of Watts, where he and members of his ROTC unit used racial epithets and pointed fake guns at blacks to scare them. 'They would hop into their cars, and would go down to Watts with these buddies of his,' Cragg said Webb told him. 'They would take the rifles down there. They would call them [epithets], point the rifles at them, pull the triggers and then drive off laughing. One night, some guys caught them and beat . . . them. And that was the end of that.' Cragg said Webb told him the Watts story during a 1983 interview for a Vietnam veterans magazine. Cragg, who described himself as a Republican who would vote for Allen, did not include the story in his article. He provided a transcript of the interview, but the transcript does not contain the ROTC story. He said he still remembers the exchange vividly more than 20 years later.
"...Cragg, a former Army sergeant major, described himself as a longtime friend of Webb's who worked for him when he was assistant secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan. Cragg said he approached the Allen campaign through a friend after hearing Webb's answer to the Times-Dispatch reporter's question about using the N-word. 'The fact is he has. He used it in my presence,' Cragg said." Now, this has far more weight to it than anything Larry Sabato is out there saying.
Cragg: "I don't think he's a racist any more than George Allen is. But he's not frank in admitting that he grew up in a culture where that was common and he used it." Now, as I say, the Post did run the story, but it's on page B-1! It's not only not on page A-1, it's not in the A section whatsoever! (interruption) Yes, Mr. Snerdley. A question from the program observer here, folks. Right. Pointing... I know that. I was just going to say that, pointing fake guns at people, rifles, going into their neighborhood, riding around terrorizing them, is far worse than using the N-word or macaca.
And who was it called Chris Wallace a monkey the other day? You know, that can get you in trouble, too. Somebody called Chris Wallace a monkey. Some Clinton person called Chris Wallace a monkey. Some TV commentator. I don't remember who it was. The point is, here's something that's not even stated. Maybe it has been earlier. But, you know, it reminded me of this. Webb was the secretary of the Navy for Reagan. Now, look what the Democrats have to do to try to win this Senate seat. They have to go out and get a guy who is ostensibly a conservative and is all of a sudden calling himself a Democrat now in order to beat George Allen. It's one of these little-mentioned factoids of this campaign.
They haven't gone out and found a real ribald, good old-fashioned anti-war lib to run against George Allen, which is what their kook base would like. But, at any rate, this is just ridiculous. We'll see what kind of life this gets. We'll see if anybody is interested in doing this story. The fact that it's on B-1 of the Washington Post, I will predict to you, that means that none of the other broadcast media will care about it. Because by putting it on page B-1, you automatically cancel it out, say, "Ah, it's, you know, sort of a fringe story." Besides all that, folks, the damage, they think, has been done. They're not interested in finding out who's used the N-word. They're not interested. The Drive-By Media and the Washington Post are not interested in that. The Democrats are not interested in that. All they're interested in doing is damaging, smearing, and they think they've done it. As I said yesterday, they've gone way overboard and way over the top on this -- and this story, we'll make sure this story gets out. It is not on page B-1 here at the EIB Network.
