Rational Spice

I just got back from George and Susan Allen’s event at the Omni downtown.

There was an amazing incident at the end, as George was leaving the room to talk to the press. Some guy, obviously a Webb staffer, started shouting questions at George about his divorce. George ignored him, so the Webb guy got belligerent, trying to push his way towards George. I guess he didn’t like when people pushed back, because as he went through the door into the hallway, I saw him throw a mis-aimed punch into the crowd.

I didn’t see what happened next, but by the time I made it out into the hallway, he was being escorted out by George’s supporters. TV crews got a pretty good chunk of footage.

It’ll be interesting to see what makes the news. I can personally report that the Webb guy seemed to be intentionally starting an incident, and that he decided to get violent in doing it. Simply, he threw the first punch. In my view, that makes him a thug.

No doubt, the Webb machine will try to spin this as George’s fault. The reality is different.

If Jim Webb has even a shred of Honor left, he’ll fire this thug, after making him apologise in public. Somehow, I doubt that’s going to happen.

UPDATE: Waldo writes to say that the thug is UVa law student and blogger, Mike Stark, not a staffer. Frankly, the whole thing smelled — and still smells — like a setup, and until I see clear evidence that there wasn’t coordination with the Webb campaign, I’m still going with “staffer”.

Waldo’s also going with the story that “Channel 29 got the whole thing on tape”. Stark threw his punches on the way out of the ballroom, out of view of their cameras. I saw what I saw.

UPDATE 2: According to The Hook, Dan Allen reports that he was “slammed… against the door” by Stark as he was leaving the ballroom. That’s the same place that I reported Stark throwing a punch. Looks like Stark was even more aggressive at that point than I thought.