Forget the deer head. This might be enough to destroy his career in the DC suburbs:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 — Another acquaintance of Senator George Allen said Tuesday that she heard him use a racial slur in 1976, contradicting a statement he made Monday in an effort to tamp down similar accusations.
Mr. Allen’s campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, called the account by the woman, Ellen G. Hawkins, “another false accusation.”Mr. Allen, a Virginia Republican whose re-election campaign has been knocked off balance by the accusations, said Monday that he did not remember ever using the term and that “it is absolutely false that that was ever part of my vocabulary.”
Mrs. Hawkins, who described herself as a rural Virginia housewife and an active Democrat, said in an interview Tuesday that she heard Mr. Allen use the slur repeatedly at a party on election night in 1976. She said Mr. Allen used the term while deprecating the intelligence of the black players on the Washington Redskins football team, which Mr. Allen’s father coached. Recalling remarks about its star running back, Larry Brown, Mrs. Hawkins said that Mr. Allen “started in effect bad-mouthing him, saying what a shiftless you-know-what” he was.
She said she remembered the conversation because she was a big fan of the team and was shocked. She said Mr. Allen’s statement on Monday was “just plain a lie.”
There's a sizable percentage of the population in Northern Virginia that likes to think it bleeds burgundy and gold. I doubt seriously they will be happy to hear this story.
And unfortunately for Allen, that's not even the half of it. When it comes to race, football has been a critical metaphor for Allen. Take a look:
Allen, the son of a legendary football coach of the Washington Redskins and Los Angeles Rams, suggested that his football background may have numbed him to some racial complexities. "On football teams and every team sport, you don't care about someone's religion, race or their ethnicity," he said. "All you care about is if that person can help your team. Can he block, punt, pass or kick. It's a true meritocracy... and it's that meritocracy that you see on a football field and on a football team that we should aspire for in our society here in America."
This latest story isn't just another example of Allen using racist language. It's an example that undercuts his campaign's entire narrative about race. Sure, some people might see sports as a meritocracy, but if this story is to be believed, Allen most certainly is not one of them. His campaign narrative is simply a lie.
UPDATE: Maybe my dismissal of the "deer head" story was a bit premature. But at this point I'm not sure it matters. Whether he dies a death of a thousand cuts or of a fatal blow, I suspect the end of his political career is near either way.
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