Etty Allen's Unease

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Etty Allen's Unease

Etty Allen's Unease
By Ruth Marcus
Saturday, September 23, 2006; Page A19

... George Allen makes Montana's Conrad Burns look like a yeshiva boy.

First, there's Allen's football shtick: the coach father, the incessant gridiron metaphors, the -- pardon the phrase -- pigskin he likes to toss into the audience at campaign events. Add the chewing tobacco, the cowboy boots, the Confederate flags, and Allen is the ultimate un-Jew, his goyish bona fides beyond question.

Was that part of the point, consciously or not? In fact, it turns out, the Jewish Question wasn't entirely new to Allen: Charlottesville Daily Progress columnist Bob Gibson referred to the senator's Jewish roots in an October 2003 column -- and says that was the only time in 27 years of coverage that Allen demanded a correction.