Great to be reading Andrew Leonard's political reporting again. Wish you'd put him back into general assignment/politics. "How the world works" is a pigeonhole I don't go into very often. Maybe you could turn HTWW into an international political beat. I'd start reading HTWW and Andrew could go on junkets.

I think that the unsung hero in this victory is S.R. Siddarth. I've never met this man, but I admire him greatly ... for venturing into (formerly) Allen country, for his courage in documenting and coming forward with the infamous video. I have no doubt that Allen will continue to be a racist, albeit quietly and in fact will probably do what Republicans do best (aside from smear tactics) which is to paint himself as a victim of whatever the Gripe Du Jour is.

I live in Northern Virginia and welcome all the different ethnic groups with whom I'm privileged to share the Commonwealth. Hopefully, Allen will fade quietly into the red part of Virginia and stay there, riding his horses and growing some tobacco.

A nice roundup of the whole thing. And yes, I too think that Mr. Sidarth is a hero not only for being a lightning rod for Allen's bullying, but I loved the essay he wrote for admittance to a seminar in which he simply stated "I am Macaca." I thought that had class.

My only quiblle is with calling this "Macaca-gate." For Christ's sake, it's been 34 years since a break-in at a Democratic Party office at an office building called Watergate, and the political scribblers are STILL appending "gate" to everything." Give it a rest. If not, well, perhaps in the future a Congressman will be found to have accepted bribes from a maker of farm fences and gates, and then the Washington chattering classes will instantly be abuzz with "Gategate."

Maybe during the '08 election cycle all brownies should walk around GOP rallies wearing t-shirt saying: "Watch out GOP: Macaca's in the house!"

Andrew Leonard's take on the Indian diaspora will play well in smug and ignorant white Democratic circles, but any American who knows anything about India or has spent any time there will recognise Leonard's racial demagoguery for what it is. India is the home of the caste system Andrew, and light skinned Brahman Indians dominate India be it in politics, Bollywood, the media, business, just about everything else. Look how Tamils are treated. Religious hatred between Hindus and Muslims runs deep in India, witness the recent religiously motivated train bombing. Mumbai's been run by a Hindu thug, Bal Thackery. Tit-for tat religious or turf assassinations are a way of life in India. Get off the jet in Mumbai and take a deep whiff of that fresh city air coming from that huge slum you just flew over, hundreds of thousands of Indians sleep on Mumbai sidewalks adjacent to open sewers. Or, spend a summer in Delhi, you don't need to smoke because just breathing the air is like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, we'll adhere to Kyoto you say? What's happened in America is that clever Indians have caught on to the fact that playing the race card works with Democrats, playing the victim to the big bad anglo saxon or big bad Republican will get you far in the Democratic party, that ironically is run by some of the richest white wrecked'ems in the USA. Whining works for democrats. The fact is the average Indian American family resides in the upper middle or upper class of the American economic hiearchy, the percentage of Indian millionaires is much higher than the percentage is for millionaires in most other American ethnic groups. The average Indian American has more in common with rich white democrats like Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and John "sue them for what they got" Roberts. Where the average Indian family differs from the Democrats is that family matters more to him than it does to the average Democrat. The real irony is, is that the Democratic Party has become the American party of wealth, it's no longer the party of the average middle American its the partry of the wealthiest states, the wealthiest Americans. Indians are smart, and they recognise the racist stupidity in both the Democratic and Republican parties and exploit it.

Did Jim Webb pay his Indian trojan horse? If not, he was exploiting a minority. Let's call for an investigation at the expense of the Virginia or American taxpayer! Oops, that's an illegal use of campaign contributions! The rest of the world knows all about us as we put our society on display for all to see, while the rest of the world are smarter than us as we know just about nothing about them and their racism and systems of injustice.

I wonder if maybe, just maybe, racism backfired on Allen as some rednecks freaked out thinking, "He's a Jew!!!"

A lot of voters also may have seen Allen for the poser he is.

The Palos Verdes Kid, son of a somebody with cowboy boots and chew pretending to be Johnny Reb decked out in Stars and Bars regalia.

That kind of shit only goes so far once people have woken up.

Webb was the real thing, a guy who had faced enemy fire.

The voters also got a near-Republican Democrat so win-win for them.

It sounds like Van Souther's got a major chip on his shoulder. More power to anyone who comes to this country and makes money by hard work, ingenuity and skills. That's one of the things that makes the US a haven for immigrants. And for Southeast Asian Indians who come to this country - why blame them for the caste system in India? I must be one of the lucky Democrats without much money who managed to squirm into the party. Good thing the Republicans are the Part of the People. Yeah. Sounds like maybe you and George Allen could sit on your porch swings talking about the good ol' days when you could insult people and no one even noticed. Cracker.