Salon and Huffington Post strike a sour chord in last minute attack on Allen

In a pitiful, 11th hour attack, Salon and Huffington Post are running articles saying George Allen voted to keep “Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny” as the official state song.  They’re attempting to bring up the old racist nonsense that’s been thoroughly and completely debunked.

We all know that on election night in 2008 Tim Kaine declared “Ol’ Virginny is dead!”

Yeah well, Tim, when you were in part-time charge, New Virginny had to be put on life support.  But that’s another story.

Salon writes, “a video resurfacing today could make race an issue in the last two days of the campaign. The video shows Allen, then a member of the Virginia General Assembly, defending a song with racially insensitive lyrics. The song, “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” became the state’s official song during the Jim Crow era. In the 1990s, there were several attempts to retire the song or change its lyrics.”

Huffington Post says, “George Allen, the Republican nominee for Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat, endorsed keeping a controversial state song in place while he was a legislator in the 1990s, according to a video from the Library of Virginia archives.”

Does anybody out there believe that both Salon and Huffington Post just happened to stumble on the same video in the library archives?  And that they just happened to release it two days before the election?

Nice of them to do Tim Kaine’s dirty work.  After all, it’s not like The Washington Post has been slimy enough in this campaign.

They use this opportunity to recap their old racist stories from 2006 then try to hammer George Allen for his 1991 SUPPORT for changing the lyrics of the then state song “Carry Me Back To Old Virginny” to something less offensive, but keep the original for historical context and have two state songs, which is not unusual (as he said in the “damning” video).

But it’s not like they actually paid attention to the video.

Not only did George Allen SUPPORT changing the lyrics, as Governor he signed the legislation that officially retired the song!

“Lawmakers also retired ‘Carry Me Back to Old Virginia,’ the state song which many legislators considered an offensive relic, with its references to ‘darkeys’ and ‘massa.’ In doing so they finished the work begun in 1970 by a state senator from Richmond named L. Douglas Wilder.”  (Andrew Cain, “Allen Applauds Session As Va. Lawmakers Wrap It Up,” The Washington Times, 2/23/97)

This after Allen went on the record SUPPORTING its retirement:

“The House is also expected to vote to retire the song, as it did overwhelmingly three years ago. Republican Gov. George Allen said through a spokesman that he will sign any measure to promote ‘a song that people are proud of and inspired by.’”  (Larry O’Dell, “Virginia Senate Scraps Slave-Era State Song,” The Associated Press, 1/28/97)

“Gov. George Allen, who, as a member of the House tried to rewrite the existing lyrics, has said he favors legislation which would give Virginia a song that would make the people ‘inspired and proud.’”  (Tyler Whitley, “‘Old Virginia’ Is Carried Back Into Retirement,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1/29/97)

This eleventh hour last ditched effort to sink Allen is a desperate ploy to distract voters from the real issues in this race. And it’s not even an honest attack: it is a purposeful distortion of the facts.

Also interesting that the first Senator to propose retiring the song was State Senator Doug Wilder who later became the state’s first African American governor.  But Governor at the time of Wilder’s first proposal was none other than Linwood Holton, then a Republican, and today Tim Kaine’s father-in-law.

The dots.  You can connect them.

You have to wonder if Anne Holton served snacks when the three former governors got together to plant this story.

What you don’t have to wonder about is whether Tim Kaine knows he’s losing.  He’s lost support among women.  He’s lost support among independents.  And signs are clear that both George Allen and Mitt Romney are going to finish strong on Tuesday.

So what do you do when you’re in that position?  You launch an outrageous, fabricated story in the hopes that your opponent won’t have time to respond.

It’s all Tim Kaine has.

Same song.  Second verse.

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