Posted on 09/26/2006 7:50:21 AM PDT by Pokey78
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If what Larry says was true about the deers head, then there should be a newspaper account of it. Has anyone looked?
DUH........I posted that on the wrong thread!!!
Unless there's a recording somewhere, how on earth would Larry Sabato know what George Allen said in the 1970s? Liberal Larry has totally discredited himself with this one.
Did Sabato say that he heard him use the n word, or that he had direct knowledge of the deer head in the mailbox incident?
From Wiki:
In June of 2005, Allen was a co-sponsor of a resolution that had the Senate formally apologize for never passing federal legislation against lynching despite nearly 5,000 deaths from this between 1882 and 1968. Discussing the resolution, Allen said in the Senate: "I rise today to offer a formal and heartfelt apology to all the victims of lynching in our history, and for the failure of the United States Senate to take action when action was most needed."
Allen has joined calls for the Senate to consider an apology for slavery. However, in late May of 2006 he began to back away from the proposal, saying that "[s]o far, we haven't seen much of a coalition of support for it".
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This coming from a racist?
Isn't "Sabato," the Italian word for, "Macaca"?
Can you ask around your college friends and see what they remember? Shoosh, we have all said and done stupid things in college, its part of growing up. I would like to know what Larry was doing at college. Based on your description he was sort of a panty waist teachers pet. Is that correct?
"Of course keeping in mind that what is today considered a "racial slurr" was often the "standard" terminology used in the Early 70's (and before)- prior to the PC police deciding they know better how Americans are to speak."
That is absurd, You must be a very gullible guy to believe that nonsense.
We can blast these dumb stories all we want, but these constant charges on Allen are taking their toll. He has been dropping significantly in the polls and may lose his seat.
If Allen loses, the Republicans lose the Senate. And then we're all really screwed.
Have to go all the way back to the 70's???? Why stop there? Why not publish that Allen called his next-door neighbor a wop when he was 6 years old?
"what is today considered a "racial slurr" was often the "standard" terminology used in the Early 70's (and before)"
Ummm, I was alive in the early 1970s. The "N" word was consisdered insulting then too. Polite then was either negro or colored. "PC" is often just an attempt at forced polite-ness after all.
Your argument may have held water in say the 1870s.
Whether that makes a man a biggot now--for what he said 30 years ago--is a totally different matter.
The same people who are targeting Allen had no problem with many witnesses saying Jimmy Carter used this word and other disparaging terms many times before he ran for president in '76.
I went to high school in Harlem in the mid-sixties. I had a number of black friends. They would routinely call each other, "nigger" and often would call the white guys, "nigger". Of course we would return the epithet. It was all in fun and no one's feelings were even hurt.
George Allen much be a decent person if these people had to go back thirty years in order to find something to use against him. Always suspicious of those who resort to using the race card.
Allen needs to word his statements a little better. But he did not say the claim he said the n-word was "ludicrously false".
IN fact, he said he could never remember saying the word, and that it wasn't part of his vocabulary, not then and not now, it's not part of what he is.
He said shelton's story was ludicrously false. Shelton claimed Allen was a racist and used the word all the time, a claim refuted by 16 team members who don't remember Allen doing anything racist. He claimed Allen gave him the nickname "wizard" because his name was identical to a klan leader -- but other teammates say he already had the nickname when Allen showed up, and they all said it was because he was good at catching the ball.
He claimed Allen said he came to school in Virginia because blacks "knew their place". It's impossible to prove that a conversation heard by only two people didn't take place, but everybody else remembers that Allen came to Virginia because his family moved here to coach the Redskins.
And he had that story about the deer head, which has no corroberation at all, and for whom the other participant just died a couple of months ago, so is not available to refute the story.
Logically, there's something amiss here. I could well imagine Allen, a young backup quarterback, sitting with a bunch of white people and they start talking "70's southern" and the next thing you know someone uses "n-word" instead of black and nobody cares. I can imagine him joking back to people who might be racists in a way that might be racist.
I can't imagine that a person would do the deer head thing, and NOT tell it to his other friends ever in his life. Why would he share that moment with Shelton, and nobody else? That doesn't make sense -- shelton wasn't his best friend in college.
This has to go down as the worst campaign in history. I have never in 40 years of politics seen so many smears come out in such a short time. I'm frankly stunned by it. Who did George Allen piss off to make them come after him like this? Are the liberals that afraid of him as a presidential candidate? He's a genuinely nice guy who was a great governor and has been a good Senator. What did he do to deserve such smears?
I am not an Allen for President supporter, but I lived in Virginia when he was governor and voted for him for Senator in 2000. I have met him and his lovely wife, Susan, on numerous occasions. I am totally incensed by this unfair attack, and all good people should be.
Alright then, I think we need to ask Larry to produce the "blue dress" to substantiate his claims. Maybe there is some audio recording that can prove his point. Too bad that UVA has professors who like to make insidious and slanderous comments about people right before an election.
Interesting little tidbit in this piece:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0609.sinderbrand.html
Apparently, the Allen campaign had recently accused Sabato of being partisan. Perhaps he's a bit angry now?
He is NOT dropping in the polls. he bottomed out at around 50% and is now sustaining it. Unless you want to cite current reliable polls to prove otherwise, quit making this accusation.
Second, these attacks are NOT having an effect. The problem is that Allen chose to do the Trent Lott apology circuit which worked for Lott so well he was stripped of ML status.
It's HOW Allen responded, not the critisism themselves, that hurt him originally.
The reason the Left is fabricating this latest issue is because THEY know the polls have stabilized in Allen's favor, and they want to replicate the results with the last. It won't Allen, unless he decides to do another apology circuit.
BTW, it's pathteic that their supposedly great candidate has no other way tocause waves in the race. It just re-affirms my assessment that the conservatives fawning over him when he was the announced candidate, were fools.
The n word was a slurr but it was no big deal if you said it.
As the only non white in a small town, I heard all kinds of crap on a 24/7 basis and frankly, it was not a big deal to me then and is not a big deal to me now.
This whole thing is stupid and it is also why "the politics of personal destruction" is causing us to have very poor candidates.
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