Since the Racist CCC is in the News, Here’s a Flashback to George Allen’s Ties to That Hate Group

Given the white supremacist murderer in the news these days, and especially given that his website “reflects the strong influence of a white nationalist group called the Council of Conservative Citizens” (CCC), I thought it would be timely to recall that former U.S. Senator George Allen (R) was also a big fan of the CCC. When this news came out in late August 2006, I wrote about it on Raising Kaine, and the reaction from right wingnuts was…let’s just say, not exactly simpatico (let alone condemnatory of Allen’s deeply longstanding, deeply-ingrained racism). To the contrary, at least one of these folks ginnned up the faux “outrage” and demanded that I be fired from the Webb for Senate campaign for calling out Allen for being a racist (as it turned out, not only wasn’t I fired, but Webb for Senate senior strategist told me I should wear the attacks “as a badge of honor”). We soon learned that Allen’s love for the Confederacy, “habitual use of the ‘n word,” etc. went back many years, as more and more of his former teammates, classmates, etc. began to tell the media. There was also the story about how Allen “stuffed a deer’s head into the mailbox of one of the [black families’] homes.” Plus, of course, there was the ‘macaca’ incident you might have heard of, in which Allen angrily used a racial slur on a Webb staffer whose family hailed from India. But nooooo…no racism there, according to Allen’s defenders on the right. Just like E.W. Jackson and many others on the (far) right today won’t acknowledge racism as the prime motive in the Charleston shootings. Sadly, when it comes to the right wing in this country, the more things change when it comes to America’s demographics and race relations, the more they stay the same with many conservatives in this country.

Is anybody out there still seriously arguing that George Allen isn’t an outright racist?  Well, read  this, just published by The Nation magazine:

Only a decade ago, as governor of Virginia, Allen personally initiated an association with the Council of Conservative Citizens, the successor organization to the segregationist White Citizens Council and among the largest white supremacist groups.

…After speaking with CCC founder and former White Citizens Council organizer Gordon Lee Baum and two of his cohorts, Allen suggested that they pose for a photograph with then-National Rifle Association spokesman and actor Charlton Heston. The photo appeared in the Summer 1996 issue of the CCC’s newsletter, the Citizens Informer.

According to Baum, Allen had not naively stumbled into a chance meeting with unfamiliar people. He knew exactly who and what the CCC was about and, from Baum’s point of view, was engaged in a straightforward political transaction. “It helped us as much as it helped him,” Baum told me. “We got our bona fides.” And so did Allen.

Descended from the White Citizens’ Councils…the CCC is designated a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In its “Statement of Principles,” the CCC declares, “We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called “affirmative action” and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.”

So how’s Allen going to explain THIS one?  What, he thought the “CCC” stood for “Civilian Conservation Corps” or something?  And if you believe THAT one, I’ve got some good “caca” to sell you.

{UPDATE:  Here are some classic quotes from the CCC…courtesy of Wikipedia.

*”Each of the three major races plays a distinct role in history. . . . The whites were the creators of civilization, the yellows its sustainers and copyists, the blacks its destroyers.” (www.cofcc.org, 12/98)

*Abraham Lincoln was “surely the most evil American in history,” and Martin Luther King was a “depraved miscreant.+óGé¼-¥ (www.cofcc.org, 12/98)

*”The Jews’ motto is ‘never forget, and never forgive.’ One can’t agree with the way they’ve turned spite into welfare billions for themselves, but the ‘never forget’ part is very sound.” (Citizens Informer, Winter/97)

*”The presence {in Congress} of even one white person with our interests foremost in his mind is simply unacceptable to the issues-obsessed conservative race traitors. Texas Governor George Bush and his brother Jeb in Florida have manifested their self-hatred by embracing Hispanics ahead of whites. Somehow we must find a way to relieve whites of their self-hatred.” (“Open Letter to White People,+óGé¼-¥ www.cofcc.org, 12/98)}