The Redskins have "hired longtime Virginia politico and liberal blogger BEN TRIBBETT to help guide the team's battle over their controversial nickname," according to Ryan Nobles of Richmond-based WWBT-NBC. Tribbett is a "lifelong Redskins fan" and has been a "regular defender of the team's nickname long before the team recruited him to help aid their efforts to defend them." Tribbett got his start in Democratic politics by "working on the campaign" of Virginia state Sen. CHAP PETERSEN in his first run for the state House of Delegates. He is perhaps "best known for his popular and often controversial political blog, Not Larry Sabato, which regularly broke big political stories." Tribbett "shut down his blog" Tuesday night. His hiring is the latest evidence of Redskins Owner DANIEL SNYDER's "effort to hold back the onslaught of political pressure that is growing around the nickname" (NBC12.com, 6/25). PRO FOOTBALL TALK's Mike Florio noted defending the team’s name "makes for strange bedfellows." Tribbett’s blog was the "first to disclose a 2006 campaign-trail blunder" made by former U.S. Sen. GEORGE ALLEN (R-Va.), the brother of current Redskins President BRUCE ALLEN. George Allen during his '06 re-election run "referred to a volunteer for his opponent’s campaign as 'macaca,' an obscure racial slur about which Allen claimed to have no knowledge." Tribbett and Bruce Allen are now joining forces "to defend another racial slur about which Snyder claims to have no intention to be a slur" (PROFOOTBALLTALK.com, 6/26).
