The Deer Hunter or Political Suicide

Sen. George Allen's racial slurs and past history are giving him headaches. Are the stories from his past relavent or even true? He sure has a problem getting his stories straight that's all I can say on the matter. Allen denies using racial slur in school By BOB LEWIS, Associated Press Writer Mon Sep 25, 7:52 PM ET RICHMOND, Va. - Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record) on Monday denounced as "ludicrously false" allegations from a former college football teammate that he frequently used a racial slur to refer to blacks in the early 1970s and that he once stuffed a severed deer head into a black household's mailbox. "The story and his comments and assertions in there are completely false," Allen said during an interview with AP reporters and editors. "I don't remember ever using that word and it is absolutely false that that was ever part of my vocabulary." Allen's use of the word "macaca" in referring to a Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent in August prompted an outcry. The word denotes a genus of monkeys and, in some cultures, is considered an ethnic slur. But the senator insisted he did not know that and had simply made the word up. ...................... Shelton, a Hendersonville, N.C., radiologist who was a tight end and wide receiver for the university in the early 1970s, said Allen used the n-word only around white teammates. Shelton said the incident with the deer head occurred during their college days when he, Allen and another teammate who has since died were hunting on a farm the third man's family owned near Bumpass, Va., 40 miles east of the university. Shelton said Allen asked the other teammate where black families lived in the area, then stuffed a deer's head into the mailbox of one of the homes. "George insisted on taking the severed head, and I was a little shocked by that," Shelton said. "This was just after the movie `The Godfather' came out with the severed horse's head in the bed," Shelton told the AP. He said he came forward because of Allen's presidential prospects and the "macaca" incident. "When I saw the look in his eye in that camera and using the word `macaca,' it just brought back the bullying way I knew from George back then," Shelton said. Read More at AP