Allen gets called out by DC political dean

Via dailykos and youtube, Larry Sabato, who is one of the most respected pollsters and political commentators in DC, and widely known as highly nonpartisan, confirms that George Allen took delight in being called a redneck, and that Allen used the term "n-----" to refer to African Americans. He goes on the record with Chris Matthews, who doesn's seem to have much love lost for Allen.

Sabato also reads the tea leaves and says that Virginia is trending far more purple, and that Allen's redneck persona is growing old and antiquated, just as I called it yesterday. He says, "Virginia is as much a mid-Atlantic state as it is a Southern state, and it's no longer as conservative as George Allen was, or is, depending on the day of the week." [OUCH!]

Chris Matthews asks the critical question: "Let me ask you about this, are there people out there in Virginia who are a bit conservative on the issue of race, and are happy about this?"

Sabato feels the need to defend his home state from being tarred by association with George Felix Allen, and replies: "I happen to have been born here, and grew up here. I would say that the Virginia I grew up in during the '50s no longer exists. This is a much more tolerant state."

You know, it was bad enough when the stories first broke in salon.com, but it should be acknowledged that salon is mostly a progressive magazine. Now that the AP wire services has picked up the story, it's a whole new ballgame. Cos that stuff gets syndicated EVERYWHERE.

I just googled "George Allen" and the first three news results were:
"George 'Macaca' Allen is finished" - Alternet
"Sen. Allen denies using racial slur" - ABC News
"George Allen is in trouble" - Yahoo! News

All three are entirely on the money. When Allen can't escape the issue of using a racial slur (and that's what it is when the stories about you for close to TWO MONTHS are about your usage of racially insentive language), then he is done with. And since the macaca videotape broke on youtube on August 12-13th, and I'd guess that the "Allen uses the n-word" stories will go on for another 2 weeks, I'd say he only has about 4 weeks to convince Virginia voters that he's not a racist hypocrite. Meanwhile, Virginians will shudder every time they hear his name, because when they turn on the national news and hear the word Virginia, it won't be about anything good like Virginia Beach or how Douglas Wilder was the first African American elected to the governorship since the Reconstruction, and it was in their home state. It'll just be about George Felix Allen's racist mouth.

Also, George Felix Allen gets slammed by the Weekly Standard, a conservative mag: George Allen Monkeys Around: Forget the presidential campaign. Can he still win his Senate race?

Buh-bye Georgie, it was real swell knowin' ya. . . or something like that. Ditto for the man you're trying to copy in the White House.