...and my good friends will vouch for me."
Of course, consider the source: Allen still insists "macaca" had no racial connotations either:
In an Associated Press interview Monday, Allen vehemently denied the allegations [Ken] Shelton [a former college football teammate of Allen] made in an article published Sunday in the online magazine Salon.com and an AP interview Sunday night. His campaign released statements from four other ex-teammates defending Allen and rejecting Shelton's claims.
"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."
The Republican has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008, but questions about racial insensitivity have dogged him throughout his re-election bid against Democrat Jim Webb. 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 insists he did not know that and had simply made the word up.
Shelton, a tight end and wide receiver for the Cavaliers in the early 1970s, said Allen used the N-word only around white teammates.
Shelton said the incident with the deer occurred during their college days when he, Allen and another teammate who has since died were hunting on property the third man's family owned.
Shelton said Allen asked the other teammate where black families lived in the area, then stuffed a female deer's head into the mail box 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment