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Tue 26 Sep, 2006 11:38 am
Updated:2006-09-26
Sabato Claims Sen. Allen Used Racial Slur
Noted Political Scientist Was a Classmate of Allen's
By BOB LEWIS
AP
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."
Sen. George Allen is at the center of new allegations of racist comments.
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.
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."
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.
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.
Allen's use of the word "macaca" in referring to a Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent in August prompted an outcry. The word denotes a genus of monkeys and, in some cultures, is considered an ethnic slur. But the senator insisted he did not know that and had simply made up the word.
Allen vehemently denied that he used the n-word.
"The story and his comments and assertions in there are completely false," Allen said during an interview with AP reporters and editors. "I don't remember ever using that word and it is absolutely false that was ever part of my vocabulary."
Shelton said Allen used the n-word only around white teammates.
Shelton said the incident with the deer head occurred during their college days when he, Allen and another teammate who has since died were hunting on a farm the third man's family owned near Bumpass, Va., 40 miles east of the university.
Shelton said Allen asked the other teammate where black families lived in the area, then stuffed a deer's head into the mailbox of one of the homes.
"George insisted on taking the severed head, and I was a little shocked by that," he told the AP. "This was just after the movie `The Godfather' came out with the severed horse's head in the bed."
Shelton said he came forward because of Allen's presidential prospects and the "macaca" incident.
"When I saw the look in his eye in that camera and using the word `macaca,' it just brought back the bullying way I knew from George back then," he said.
Shelton described himself as an independent who has supported Democratic and Republican candidates. He said he regretted that he had not spoken against Allen in the early 1980s, when he first entered politics. Shelton said he began writing down his recollections as Allen's career "ascended to heights I never could have imagined."
Other former teammates rushed to the senator's defense.
Charlie Hale, a college roommate of Shelton's and an Allen campaign volunteer, said that he had hunted often with Allen, and "there was not even a rumor on the team" about the alleged deer incident.
Doug Jones, another Allen campaign volunteer who said he had roomed with Shelton, also dismissed the allegations. "I never heard George Allen use any racially disparaging word, nor did I ever witness or hear about him acting in a racially insensitive manner," he said.
Another former teammate, Gerard R. Mullins, said he recalled nothing racist about Allen.
"George had a strong personality, and I guess that's why he was a quarterback," Mullins, who is not close to Allen, said in a telephone interview.
Allen was sometimes confrontational with teammates, he said.
"He would kind of pick on everyone a little just to get a reaction," said Mullins. "From a football standpoint, if you were black or white it didn't matter. If you dropped a pass, he'd have something to say to you."
Shelton's claims came a week after a debate in which Allen bristled at questions about his Jewish ancestry. Allen later acknowledged publicly for the first time that his grandfather, a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, was Jewish, and on Monday he said both his maternal grandparents were Jews.
Explaining his initial reaction, Allen has said his mother swore him to secrecy when she told him about his ancestry last month.
Allen's father, the late George H. Allen, was a legendary football coach with the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins. Allen transferred from the University of California, Los Angeles, to Virginia when his father took the Redskins job.
Just call him Macacawitz.
I had never heard the term "macaca" used as a slur before. Anyone else?
Given the latest revelations, whether "macaca" is a slur or not doesn't seem very important. The n-word is certainly a racial slur. The CCC (a group which Allen was a member) is certainly a racist organization.
The "Macaca" comment was newsworthy because it was used in the context of "welcoming" an American citizen to America. Why an American citizen would need to be welcomed to his own country is a very good question indeed... and it seems likely that the color of his skin had something to do with it.
The big question now is whether racist attitudes will help him or hurt him with conservative Republican voters in Virginia.
It certainly kills any presidential ambitions for this guy. What a shame.
Allen most likely has this election all wrapped up, sad isn't it?
I don't think this is wrapped up ... this race is going to be a close one.
It would be funny if an Allen loss gave the Democrats the Senate.
There's a lot of virginia where people still fly their confederate flags proudly.
Re: Senator George Allen & his use of the "N"
Quote:Allen's use of the word "macaca" in referring to a Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent in August prompted an outcry. The word denotes a genus of monkeys and, in some cultures, is considered an ethnic slur. But the senator insisted he did not know that and had simply made up the word.
In a recent press release, the Allen campaign now says that the senator also made up the word "nigger," and that he did not know it was offensive until he asked his mother, whose father happened to be a monkey.
Quote:Shelton said Allen used the n-word only around white teammates.
Wise precaution.
Quote:Shelton said the incident with the deer head occurred during their college days when he, Allen and another teammate who has since died were hunting on a farm the third man's family owned near Bumpass, Va., 40 miles east of the university.
Bumpass? Wasn't that a dance in the '70s?
Now, Even Allen's Apologies Are Getting Him in Trouble
Now, Even Allen's Apologies Are Getting Him in Trouble
Sons of Confederate Veterans Is the Most Recent Group Offended by Senator's Comments
By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 29, 2006; B01
RICHMOND, Sept. 28 -- Sen. George Allen can't seem to win: first, he apologizes for addressing an Indian American with a racial slur and acknowledges that many view the Confederate flag as a hate symbol. Now, the Sons of Confederate Veterans want him to apologize, too.
As he fights Democrat James Webb for a second term in the Senate, Allen has spent the last six weeks battling charges of racism after calling a young Indian American man "macaca" and later being accused of having used a racial epithet toward blacks.
He has vehemently denied ever using the "N-word." He has apologized profusely for saying "macaca." And he has insisted that he has moved far beyond his youthful admiration of controversial symbols like the battle flag.
"What I was slow to appreciate and wish I had understood much sooner," Allen told a black audience last month, "is that this symbol . . . is, for black Americans, an emblem of hate and terror, an emblem of intolerance and intimidation."
Now, even that statement is getting him into trouble.
"He's apologizing to others, certainly he should apologize to us as well," said B. Frank Earnest Sr., the Virginia commander of the confederate group at a news conference. "We're all aware, ourselves included, of the statements that got him into this. The infamous macaca statement. He's using our flag to wipe the muck from his shoes that he's now stepped in."
Over the years, Allen has been a darling of the confederate group. As governor, he designated April as Confederate History Month. He has displayed the battle flag in his home as part of what he said is a flag collection. And his high school yearbook picture shows him wearing a Confederate flag pin.
But the senator has been distancing himself from those symbols as he pursues reelection and considers a bid for the presidency in 2008.
In the past several years, he has co-sponsored legislation condemning the lynching of blacks and has promised to work on similar legislation apologizing for slavery. He recently said of the Confederate flag that "the symbols you use matter because of how others may take them."
Allen's recent statements didn't sit well with the SCV. They accused him yesterday of trying to appeal to liberal voters with his new position.
"The denunciation of the flag to score political points is anathema to our organization," said Brag Bowling, a former past commander of the group.
Allen campaign manager Dick Wadhams brushed aside criticisms from the group, saying "Senator Allen stands by his comments."
Even as Allen was getting hammered by the confederates, another person emerged on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" to accuse him of using the N-word.
Patricia Waring, who described herself as the wife of Allen's rugby coach in 1978 and 1979, said she overheard Allen repeatedly using the epithet during a match in 1978. She said she confronted Allen at the time, urging him not to use that word.
"I heard to my left, the N-word, and I heard it again, and I looked around and heard it again," she said. "And there was this fellow sitting on the ground. He was putting on red rugby shoes -- it is seared in my brain, believe me. And he was kind of showing off, I guess, but he was telling a story and . . . in the story was a lot of N-words."
Waring said she is a Democratic activist from Maryland. She said she has had no contact with Webb or his campaign staff.
Asked about Waring's charges, Wadhams said: "It's the latest false accusation. It's patently untrue, made by a self-confessed partisan liberal Democrat."
Peter Schmidt, 58, a former rugby teammate of Allen's, said Thursday night that he did not remember Waring or her husband and said he "never heard anything like that from [Allen]. I just have no way I could possibly believe that."
Also Thursday, a former roommate of Webb's challenged a report that Webb had used the N-word and harassed blacks. An associate of Webb's, Dan Cragg, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that Webb told him he took drives through the black neighborhood of Watts, where he and members of his Reserve Officer Training Corps unit used racial epithets and pointed fake guns at blacks to scare them. Cragg was referred to The Post by the Allen campaign.
Oleg Jankovic, 60, said he was Webb's roommate in 1963 and 1964.
"No. No. It just wasn't happening," Jankovic said of Cragg's allegation. He said Webb once shot rifles into the air from the top of a dorm, but never drove through Watts with one or yelled epithets. "No. Absolutely not."
Also Thursday, black lawmakers in the General Assembly met to discuss whether to endorse Webb. The Democrat has struggled to earn their support because of statements he has made about affirmative action. Members of the black caucus said they would announce a decision Friday.
During the Democratic primary this year, Webb performed poorly in areas of the state heavily populated by blacks after his opponent highlighted comments he had made saying affirmative action is "state-sponsored racism." Webb has since said he supports affirmative action for blacks, but that it should not have been broadened into a larger diversity program.
One member of the caucus, Sen. Benjamin J. Lambert III (D-Richmond), has endorsed Allen, saying he was swayed by Allen's efforts to secure money for historically black colleges and universities.
I don't know how "wrapped up" Allen has anything, at this point. If this is just shrugged off as coincidence or conspiracy that all these folks are coming forward, something is definitely wrong...
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/09/29/allen_sabornie/index.html
Your right, its called an election year. Lets not forget that Sen. Bird was a member of the Klan.
Byrd owned everything he did - and that's something that your boy eveidently has a huge problem with...
AP: Allen didn't report stock options By SHARON THEIMER and BOB LEWIS, Associated Press Writers
RICHMOND, Va. - For the past five years, Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record), has failed to tell Congress about stock options he got for his work as a director of a high-tech company. The Virginia Republican also asked the Army to help another business that gave him similar options.
Congressional rules require senators to disclose to the Senate all deferred compensation, such as stock options. The rules also urge senators to avoid taking any official action that could benefit them financially or appear to do so.
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