How did this happen?

George Allen has declined a leadership award from the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, producing even more fallout from his recent ‘Macaca’ problem. WTF? How in the hell did a guy with a very checkered past on racial issues (and I am being much more generous than Allen deserves) get an award from a group named for the lawyer that won Brown vs. Board of Education and became our nation’s first African-American Supreme Court Justice? Seriously, how did this happen and who were the people that made this decision? Well, the Board of Directors reads like a who’s who of American business. Coca-Cola, Siemans, Booz Allen Hamilton, Phillip Morris, Wahl-Mart, and Maconalds are all represented on the Board as well as David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA(?!?!?!). Lots of these companies are serious Republican donors. So let me give you my version of events. I am totally speculating what went down here but this is my guess:

A bunch of Allen’s corporate buddies were trying to do him a solid in an election year and give him some polish on his racial record. The fund’s donors freaked out at the thought of their money being used to recognize a bigoted clown like Allen and threatened to cut the fund off. Allen got wind of the fracas and made the political calculation to get the issue off the table before it became bigger news. IMHO, he made the right call. The last thing the Allen campaign needs is more controversy on race issues, no matter how tangential. So George rejects the award and prays that the whole thing just blows over.

Marshall must be rolling over in his grave.