"A paid employee for Democratic Congressional candidate Al Weed resigned Wednesday after sending supporters an e-mail that used vulgar language and called Republican Sen. George Allen, "George 'Macacawitz' Allen."

The e-mail from Southwest Regional Field Organizer Meryl Ibis was sent Tuesday evening in preparation for Allen's scheduled stop in Danville Wednesday afternoon.

In it, Ibis encourages people to "show up and let the senator know we are sick of his billsh*t" and to bring signs that show "just what you think of him." In the subject line, she combined Allen's now-infamous use of "macaca" with the recent media reports that Allen's mother is Jewish to form a new nickname - "Macacawitz."

According to Curt Gleeson, Weed's press secretary, neither he nor Weed had advance knowledge of the e-mail. Ibis resigned Wednesday afternoon shortly after the campaign read the message.

"A young field staffer made an error in judgment, and we immediately accepted her resignation," Weed said in a written statement. "In no way do I or this campaign condone derogatory language."

According to the Weed campaign, Ibis is in her early 30s and has worked on several political campaigns out of state. She was hired by the Weed campaign this summer to organize voter outreach in the Danville area. The campaign hired four such staffers across the large Fifth District.

Allen's campaign tacked the blame for the Weed staffer's e-mail on Allen's Democratic senatorial challenger Jim Webb.

Allen's campaign manager Dick Wadhams, compared the e-mail to a cartoon released by the Webb campaign during the primary that many viewed as anti-Semitic.

"It appears to be more of the same," said Wadhams. "They (the Webb campaign) just can't keep themselves from doing it. It's terribly unfortunate that it appears to be a pattern of behavior by the Webb campaign and his supporters."" (Blair Goldstein, Media General News Service, The Daily Progress, October 5, 2006)

Editor's Note: An index to coverage of George Allen on the Loper website may be found at http://loper.org/~george/archives/2006/Aug/925.html