DEERHUNTER. The controversy over George Allen�s racial attitudes and behavior took another sudden turn -- for the worse, in Allen�s case -- yesterday with the release of a Salon story in which Michael Scherer reports of accusations by three former friends of Allen�s who claim that the future senator used �nigger� as a frequent racial epithet. Scherer�s piece is book-ended by the superb reporting of The New Republic�s Ryan Lizza, who put this storyline into motion last May with a cover piece and then published an online piece last night confirming much of Scherer�s story, with added sources and details -- Allen, of course, having used the racial epithet. 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.
--Tom Schaller
