Recovered Memories of George Allen

The memories are flooding in.

It's really quite remarkable. Suddenly, people from George Allen's past are surfacing to pass along their favorite "George is a racist" recollections.

Some of them had little contact with Allen, like Larry Sabato.

RICHMOND, Va. -- A noted political scientist joined one of Sen. George Allen's former college football teammates in claiming the senator used a racial slur to refer to blacks in the early 1970s, a claim Allen dismisses as "ludicrously false."

Larry J. Sabato, one of Virginia's most-quoted political science professors and a classmate of Allen's in the early 1970s, said in a televised interview Monday that Allen used the epithet.

Sabato's assertion came on the heels of accusations by Dr. Ken Shelton, a radiologist who was a tight end and wide receiver for the University of Virginia in the early 1970s when Allen was quarterback. He said Allen not only used the n-word frequently but also once stuffed a severed deer head into a black family's mailbox.

Yikes!

That's awful!

Question: Was the severed deer head and Allen's vocabulary in college an issue in past elections?

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Allen becomes akin to a Klan member.

Actually, I think the Dems are practicing their "swiftboating" techniques on Allen.

Allen's campaign released statements from four other ex-teammates defending the senator and rejecting Shelton's claims.

Christopher J. LaCivita, an Allen strategist, said Allen and Sabato were not friends nor did they associate with each other in college.

"Larry is obviously relying on words he heard from someone else," he said. "We believe it's completely inaccurate."

Calling Sabato Allen's "classmate," while technically correct, is deceiving.

The University of Virginia isn't some tiny community college. It's not as if all the students know each other or are familiar with each other's behavior.

Allen must have made quite an impression on Sabato, considering that weren't friends.

Over thirty years have passed and Sabato is sure that Allen used the N-word.

That's odd. It's an odd memory to hold and keep fresh.

Sabato just tosses out charges, without offering any explanation.

If he's going to make such a serious charge, then why would he go half way?

"Allen said the N-word but I won't say how I know."

That's just weird.

If Sabato has information on Allen that he wants to share, then he should share it, not tease with it.

Frankly, I'm surprised that Sabato is behaving so irresponsibly.

I think he's abusing his status and credibility.

Ooh, this widely respected professor said Allen used the N-word so it must be true.

Why won't he offer more details?

Sabato has made the decision to contribute to the "death by a thousand cuts" treatment that Allen is getting. Why go half way?

Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, would not tell The Associated Press how he knew Allen used the n-word. He told Chris Matthews on MSNBC that he did not know whether it was true that Allen used the word frequently while in college.

"I'm simply going to stay with what I know is the case and the fact is he did use the n-word, whether he's denying it or not," Sabato said.

What is that?

Allen, a Republican, has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008. Questions about racial insensitivity have dogged him during his re-election bid against Democrat Jim Webb.

That's what is so odd.

Why did this racial insensitivity stuff become an issue now?

Do Virginians realize that they elected a "bigot" to be their congressman, governor, and then their senator?

The questions didn't just materialize. They were planted.

It's a hit job, character assassination.

I think it reveals the Dems' desperation.

I'm recovering a memory, too.

It's not a first-hand recollection. It's an American history moment, a Joe McCarthy moment.

From senate.gov:

In the spring of 1954, McCarthy picked a fight with the U.S. Army, charging lax security at a top-secret army facility. The army responded that the senator had sought preferential treatment for a recently drafted subcommittee aide. Amidst this controversy, McCarthy temporarily stepped down as chairman for the duration of the three-month nationally televised spectacle known to history as the Army-McCarthy hearings.

The army hired Boston lawyer Joseph Welch to make its case. At a session on June 9, 1954, McCarthy charged that one of Welch's attorneys had ties to a Communist organization. As an amazed television audience looked on, Welch responded with the immortal lines that ultimately ended McCarthy's career: "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness." When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch angrily interrupted, "Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?"

NO SENSE OF DECENCY.