The stories accusing George Allen of using the N-word continue to look stranger and stranger. Yesterday's revelation that Larry Sabato, Virginia's most well-known political scientist, joined another former Allen classmate, Christopher Taylor, in publicly accusing Allen of using the racial epithet. However, these sourcings have also begun to look rather peculiar. Now Sabato appears to be backing away from his first-person claim, telling Chris Matthews that he was relaying information from other sources and declining to identify them:

Sabato, who made his comments during an interview on Chris Matthews' "Hardball" program on MSNBC, later declined to specifically identify his sources.

"My sources are former classmates who came to me with stories that matched up," Sabato said late Monday night. "I never solicited them. They came to me during the past few months."

Initially, Sabato's claims suggested that Allen used the word around Sabato himself, but the two never spent any time together in college or afterwards, Allen's campaign insisted. In fact, Sabato spent his time after college working for the Democratic Party. Now he feels perfectly comfortable confirming rumors from unidentified sources ... with rumors from other unidentified sources.

Taylor, on the other hand, does insist that he heard the epithet first-hand when he visited Allen's residence in the early 80s. He said that Allen told him that only black people ate the turtles at the pond, but used the N-word to do so. Allen's ex-wife recalls Taylor's visit and completely rejects his story, which seems pretty substantial coming from a former spouse:

The Allen camp released a statement from Allen's first wife refuting Taylor's story. Anne Waddell, who was married to Allen from 1980 to 1984, said she recalled Taylor coming to their home to buy a puppy.

"I can say with absolute certainty that his recollection that George said anything at all that could be considered racially insensitive is completely false," she said. "He would never utter such a word."

Waddell said, "I was the one who fished for the turtles in our pond because they were eating the young goslings. The person who ate the turtles was our neighbor."

The Hampton Times also notes that Taylor also is a political activist who wants to see Allen defeated.

The original source, Ken Shelton, also claimed that Allen put a deer head into the mailbox of Virginia African-Americans while in college, a story repeated by The New Republic's Ryan Lizza in an article helpfully titled "Pond Scum". That sounds like such an outlandish story that one would have difficulty believing that someone could make it up. Fortunately, there was no need to do so. Earlier this year, a North Carolina teenager put deer parts in mailboxes in Hoke County, a story which got good regional coverage:

Every day in the past, Evelyn Matthews has gone outside her home to get her mail, hoping for something good. But when she opened the mailbox and peeked inside one day this week, something else peeked out back at her. She was standing face to face with a deer head.

"It was scary," said Matthews. "When you see two eyes looking at you, it's really frightening."

She ran for help and warned her neighbors -- and for good reason. They found deer parts in their mailbox.

Either this is quite the coincidence, or dismembering deers and mailing them to neighbors has the same allure in the South as cow-tipping does here in the Midwest. It certainly sounds like Shelton might have lifted this story and attributed it to Allen as a means of strengthening his allegations against the Senator.

One thing is certain: the only first-hand sources that have gone on the record have political axes to grind against Allen and their stories have fallen apart under close scrutiny. It's a smear campaign, a character assassination in slow motion, and one that should shame James Webb and his campaign. They have yet to distance themselves from these attacks, and one has to conclude that they have no desire to do so.

UPDATE: People in the comments claim that Sabato didn't make any first-person claims about Allen's use of the epithet. Not true:

"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.

Also, as has been pointed out in numerous other places, Sabato moderated a debate between Allen and Democratic candidate Charles Robb in 2000. Why didn't Sabato mention this issue during the debate, or indeed in the entire 2000 campaign?

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» Bill's Bites -- 2006.09.26 from Old War Dogs
The webmaster's blog-within-a-blog. Continuously updated, newest items at the top. Please click here to learn more about The Phoenix Project, then click here to see a selection of Old War Dogs merchandise. All sales proceeds go to support The Phoenix [Read More]

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» Bill's Bites -- 2006.09.26 from Old War Dogs
The webmaster's blog-within-a-blog. Continuously updated, newest items at the top. Please click here to learn more about The Phoenix Project, then click here to see a selection of Old War Dogs merchandise. All sales proceeds go to support The Phoenix [Read More]

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