O'Connor: McHenry's 'Macaca' moment

Paul O'Connor says U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry has had his "macaca moment."

The Winston-Salem Journal columnist writes that McHenry's recent speech denigrating a security guard in Baghdad's Green Zone as a "two-bit security guard" is reminiscent of George Allen's disparaging remark about an Indian-American.

McHenry's denigration of the security guard appeared in the same kind of venue — a Republican Lincoln County dinner. Apparently, he felt comfortable among friends, as Allen did, in making his arrogant and caustic remark. The problem with this kind of event, however, is that people who aren’t friends often attend and videotape them. McHenry's opponent, Lance Sigmon, had someone there who video-recorded the speech. It went up on youtube.com.

O'Connor says the speech, and McHenry's posting of his own video showing where the attack happened, play into his Republican Congressional opponent's efforts to "draw a distinction between his military service and McHenry's lack of it."

As of today, the video has been viewed 17,810 times.