Allen's Gaffes - One More for the Road

From WRIC-TV8, the Richmond/Petersburg ABC affiliate:

Charlottesville investigators are looking into possible charges as a result of Tuesday's physical confrontation at an Allen campaign stop.

That video of the incident is the centerpiece of an investigation that has much of the country watching. 8News Anchor AJ Lagoe sat down with Charlottesville Police Chief to discuss what's happening.

On Wednesday police served search warrants on the tv stations here in Charlottesville that shot this video of the disturbance at senator Allen's rally--they're now using the video to determine whether the incident warrants criminal charges.

While the images show what appears to be an assault, police are quick to point out they don't show all of what led up to the physical confrontation.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but unless Mike Stark (who the article later calls a heckler) hit somebody first, it's still assault no matter what he said. George Allen will have to go 'down town' to be interviewed about the incident within the next few days.

The Incident in Question:

Whether any assault charges are filled is, in a political sense, less important than the fact that this is yet another black eye (ha!) for the George Allen campaign and a huge distraction in the run up to election day.

Just for clarification, Mike Stark isn't a heckler. He's a blogger (he runs Calling All Wingnuts) and a Virginia resident - one of George Allen's constituents.

Living in the DC Metro area, I get to hear ads for both Maryland and Virginia races. Both state's political contests are topics of discussion on morning radio. I bring this up because this morning at the office, on a very un-political music station's morning show the incident was discussed. Outside of Virginia, this may be a 'bloggers only' sort of story, but here it's something that is very mainstream. Voters are hearing about this and while I don't imagine the outrageous actions of some of George Allen's staffers alone would cause people to not vote for Allen, as part of a long string of follies, gaffes, and damaging revelations, the assault, coming immediately before the election, may be the straw that broke the camel's back.

Let's hope so...

George Allen Assault Mike Stark 2006 Election