Tom Schaller is right. If someone can find documentation for this, Allen's career in public service is done. Take a look:
The sickest part of the latest reporting is the claim by R. Kendall Shelton that Allen -- who called Shelton the “Wizard,” because Shelton shared the surname of a former KKK imperial wizard -- once cut the head off a deer and asked where the nearest black person lived, and promptly shoved that head into the person’s mailbox. This may be the episode on which Allen’s Senate career (I think his presidential career has gone the way of the deer’s head) may turn, for two reasons. First, because an incident like this, if true, is not only grotesque and craven, but reveals a general hatred rather than an anger directed at a specific individual. It’s not like Allen was miffed that some guy, who happened to be black, sold him a used car that turned out to be a lemon. If Shelton’s account is true, for Allen any black suffices for intimidation and ridicule.
The second toxic element here is the verifiability of the event. If teenage pranksters egged your house on “mischief night” (October 30) 25 years ago, you might soon forget it; if somebody stuffed a deer’s head in your mailbox, you don’t. More to the point, some local official, such as an animal control officer or a local sheriff’s deputy, may well have been called to report the incident, perhaps creating a paper trail. If Scherer or Lizza are able to document this incident, or if a credible source comes forward to confirm, get your butter and jam out, folks, because Allen is toast.
This story is so incredibly bizarre that I find it almost impossible to believe it was made up. TNR's Lizza repeats the claim, but it isn't clear from his story if he verified it on his own. Lizza's story about the turtles is bad, but this is far, FAR worse.
And while I'm on the subject of Sen. Allen, check out the appearance on Hardball by University of Virginia political "scientist" Larry Sabato. For those who don't know, Sabato is (for better of for worse) the public face of UVa's Government Department, one of the most important departments at the very same school both he and Allen attended as classmates once upon a time. Sabato is NOT happy with what Allen has been saying, and he makes that very VERY clear:
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