A tobacco-chewing Virginian seen as a leading contender for the Republican party leadership was fighting for political survival on Tuesday amid allegations that he once stuck a deer’s severed head into an African-American family’s mailbox.
The accusations of racism against George Allen, pillar of conservative Christians and the son of a legendary football coach, followed allegations this month that he used a racial slur against a Democratic volunteer of Indian origin.
In the latest episode to raise questions about Allen’s views on race, five acquaintances from the senator’s days as a quarterback on the college football team in the 70s said he had used racial epithets, including the word ”nigger”, in the company of white friends.
Ken Shelton, a former teammate who is now a doctor in North Carolina, also described a hunting trip that ended with Allen stuffing a dead deer’s head in the mailbox of the home of an African-American family. ”George insisted on taking the severed head, and I was a little shocked by that,” he told the Associated Press. ”This was just after the movie The Godfather came out with the severed horse’s head in the bed.” Allen’s staff quickly produced four other members of the football team to counter the allegations, and he denied all the accusations.
Allen has been supported by Christian conservatives and was seen as an almost unbeatable presence in Virginia, one of the most secure Republican seats in the Senate. But his fondness for the symbols of the old south — in college and as a young lawyer he kept a Confederate flag and a noose in his office — may now have become a liability.
In recent weeks he has lost his 19-point advantage against his anti-war challenger, the Democrat Jim Webb. Webb, who is fighting his own demons from the past in charges of sexism against female naval recruits, is now running within striking distance of the senator. The controversy also undermines Republican efforts to make the party more palatable to African American voters who historically have supported the Democrats.
Allen’s views on race came under scrutiny last month when he said to Virginia-born volunteer from Webb’s campaign: ”Let’s give a welcome to macaca here. Welcome to America, and the real world of Virginia.” The volunteer, Shekar Ramanuja Sidarth (20) told reporters he had been puzzled so had looked up macaca, and found it referred to a genus of monkey.
Sidarth posted the exchange on YouTube, and the spectacle of a career politician lambasting a lowly campaign volunteer spread across the internet.
The senator soon made another gaffe. At a meeting in northern Virginia last week he bristled when asked about reports that his mother was of Jewish origin. In his 15 years in politics, the senator has repeatedly invoked his grandfather, who was imprisoned by the Nazis, but has said he was raised a Catholic.
But by the end of the week, Allen had admitted that his mother was Jewish – although he quickly added that he still had a ham sandwich for lunch. – Guardian Unlimited Â