No New Bad News? Do A Round-Up!

Poor AP ... just a month 'til election day, and no new slime-ball pitches from DNC staffers about Sen. George Allen's decades-old alleged use of "offensive comments about blacks and other groups."

No problem! There's always the time-tested ploy of a round-up story to keep the story alive.

AP National Writer Erin Texeira dug around, found similar charges against Independent candidate for Texas governor Kinky Friedman, then found an "expert on political rhetoric" and voila!, a story -- and a chance to get "Allen" and "racism" in the same sentence over a national newswire:

Highlighting candidates' race-tinged comments seems to be the campaign gotcha of this political season, even if the words were uttered decades ago.

Republican Sen. George Allen of Virginia has been fending off charges of racism for almost two months and now he's on the spot for allegedly making offensive comments about blacks and other groups in the 1970s. His Democrat opponent, Jim Webb, has had to answer for writing dialogue in a novel that includes a common racial slur.

Here's the body count from Texeira's story:

• Republicans associated with old, unsubstantiated or questionable "racist" comments: Allen (N-word, macaca), Mitt Romney (tar baby), Tony Snow (tar baby), Trent Lott (Strom Thurmond).
• Democrats charged with similar abuses: Webb (N-word)
  
• Independents with rotten mouths: Friedman (He's a comedian; give me a break!)
  

Anyone who thinks that's an accurate representation of racist-bloopers in American politics needs to get his head examined ... or get a job with AP.

Related Tags: MSM, Media bias, Politics, George Allen, Jim Webb