🚀 go-pugleaf

"Macaca" Allen.  A guy who likes Confederate flags, hangman's nooses,
cowboy boots, and chewing tobacco - and who seems to welcome bigotry
and racism - is now pulling a page from your White House war criminal's
book by refusing to speak to reporters or respond to their questions.
Seems Macaca's handlers have had it with his verbal missteps lately on
the U.S. Senate campaign trail.

So, like Bush, who long ago stopped inviting media questions unless the
questioners and most of the audience were pre-screened, to ensure soft
lobs, Macaca is being kept from even pausing after his public
appearances to allow ANY queries.  Just recite the script, then depart!

Now most astute observers realize that a person must be STUPID to have
allowed a dark-skinned U.S.-born citizen and university honor student
to publicly VIDEOTAPE his (Macaca's) racist aspersions - directed AT
THE VIDEOTAPER!  And Macaca's less-than-erudite image was further
burnished (tarnished?) when (a) he later feigned surprise and then
ANGER when forced to admit his Jewish heritage, and (b) who also
admitted that he, a LAWYER and FORMER GOVERNOR, "forgot" to notify
Congress about his past stock holdings, AS REQUIRED BY ... LAW!

Why would anyone VOTE for a candidate who has so publicly demonstrated
that he's NOT INTELLECTUALLY FIT to be a U.S. senator - much less,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!  (Oh. yeah ... you can bet he has no
intention of serving out his senate term if his benighted "public"
seems prepared to support a run in 2008.)

Of course, that's something like they said about your White House
Cheney-puppet, starting in 2000. And look what happened!  Millions of
boobus amercani ignorantly chose him as their president!  Twice!  To
ruin our nation.

Now, Macaca is campaigning, apparently via text message, proudly
touting his idiotic, unwavering support of your White House
pathological liar concerning the awful bloodbath in Iraq!

But, as Macaca MIGHT say, if his people would LET him:

"No live reporter questions, thank you!"
---------------

"Allen's Advisers Try Mute-Button Strategy"

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 12, 2006; VA04

RICHMOND -- Weeks after George Allen 's mouth got him into serious
trouble, the senator's advisers have apparently decided that he should
shut up.

At least when it comes to talking directly to the media, that is.

With less than a month before Election Day, Allen (R-Va.) has become
virtually impossible to interview directly, giving his campaign
handlers much more control over the message they send to voters. What
voters see this month will be -- they hope -- only what they want
voters to see.

The idea, apparently, is to avoid any further gaffes. In August, he
called an Indian American worker for his challenger "macaca," a slur.
Last month, in the middle of a story about his recently discovered
Jewish roots, he told a reporter that his mother still "made great pork
chops."

Now, though, he has turned to some of his longtime advisers, who have
concluded that if Allen simply doesn't talk to the media, he can't make
any more of those mistakes.

A dramatic example of this came Monday night, at the last of four
scheduled debates between Allen and challenger James Webb .

During the televised event, Allen presented himself as eager to answer
questions, showing his skill as a debater by parrying queries from the
panel, the moderator and even from his Democratic challenger with
well-scripted answers designed to fit within a one-minute or 30-second
window.

But as soon as the klieg lights went off, Allen was quickly led away by
aides, through the gathering crowd of reporters, into the adjoining
makeup room at the TV studio and out of reach. News cameras and print
reporters raced after him, to no avail.

His opponent, Democrat James Webb, had an impromptu news conference
with reporters in the studio.

There are other examples of Allen's campaign attempting to control
access to the candidate.
The campaign has begun using a conference-calling system to conduct
telephone-based news conferences, which are common in the last month of
many campaigns.

The new system requires reporters to listen to Allen's comments without
interruption and then push "*1" when they want to ask a question. Their
names will pop up on a staffer's computer screen in chronological
order. The campaign staff then decides which reporters will be allowed
to ask a question.

The Allen campaign used the technique last week, when staffers hastily
called a news conference with Allen and Republican Sen. John W. Warner
to respond to an earlier Webb news conference about the failures of the
Iraq war.

The result: Allen was asked a handful of questions, and reporters were
not permitted to ask follow-up questions. The phones of reporters who
the campaign believed would ask tough questions were simply kept on
mute the entire time.

In addition, the campaign has become even more cryptic when it comes to
Allen's public schedule. Reporters know every appearance that is
planned for his wife, Susan, but often are kept in the dark about the
senator's schedule.

In Allen's defense, he still occasionally stops and answers a question
or two while campaigning. And there have been some bizarre questions
asked of him.

Peggy Fox , a television reporter and panelist for the debate sponsored
by Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, asked him about his mother's
Jewish heritage, prompting a week-long news story. It should not seem
startling that any candidate would want to avoid surprise questions.

But that's what politicians do when they get elected: deal with the
questions that come their way. Allen, in fact, has been one of the more
open senators at the Capitol, often stopping to answer questions while
his colleagues go to great lengths to avoid the press corps.

Now, though, it seems that Allen has decided that a Rose Garden
strategy -- in which he hunkers down and avoids tough questions for the
rest of the race -- may be the only way to ensure that he returns to
Capitol Hill.

It may work. And the media's griping about it certainly won't elicit
sympathy from the public, which tends to dislike reporters about as
much it does tax collectors.

But the real victim could be voters, who will have to make up their
minds about whom to vote for on Nov. 7 based almost exclusively on
prepackaged, scripted comments from Allen.

That's a shame.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101100540.html

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101665.html