Thanks for standing up and making many points that (unfortunately, in this crowd,) needed to be made.

Although Allen's use of the "N" word in the 1970's is disappointing, it is not surprising. As a lifetime Virginia resident and graduate of UVA, I can attest that even thirty years later, racism still lingers. One imagines that many white men attending college in a Southern state in the 1970's might have--whether from a desire to conform with their peers, ignorance, or simple racism--thrown around the "N" bomb.

What I find much more disturbing is a comment Tim Russert made about Allen on Meet the Press. Although Russert's interview focused on Allen's interest in Confederate flags (which can hardly be attributed to regional pride when the person in question was born and raised in California), the detail that most surprised me was Russert's allegation that Allen kept a noose in his former law office. The comment sent a chill through me, and I was disappointed that Russert skipped over this detail in his questioning. While I suppose a Confederate flag might be associated with regional pride, a noose is unquestionably an implement of murder, and its implications are unambiguous. How I wonder would Allen have responded if Russert had pressed him on this point?

Ben Dooley

Melfa, VA

Uriel, I wasn't in Los Angeles in the 1970s. But as recent history shows us, the city remains a racial powderkeg. I seriously doubt that Allen would have stuck out like a sore thumb in using the epithet simply by virtue of inhabiting the Angeleno millieu. Such thinking embodies coastal provincialism/chauvinism ("No one in *my* Utopian city would *ever* do/say/think ________"). Yes, attitudes were changing. But change is never sweepingly uniform. I have no doubt there were plenty of overt racists in 1970s L.A., Allen among them.

Past behavior and personal history is absolutely fair game because it's one of the gauges we as voters have about how a candidate might vote and represent us, how they will lead and what kind of character they have.

Certainly the present is just important, but ignoring past personal history is a mistake.

Look no further then the POTUS, George W. Bush when you ask about past personal behavior and history. "W" was a C student and a fratboy good at getting the beer. He was/is intellectually uninterested in the world, a recovering alcholic turned born again christian, unsucessful businessman and a faux Texan. Compare this to his current record and you can character and past do matter.

The difference between Bush and Allen, besides being faux Southerners, is that Bush probably got us in Iraq by incompetence, trusting the wrong advisors and ignorance. Allen on the other hand looks like the kind of bully bozo that would lead the U.S. into bad decisions on his own psychotic initiative regardless if he's just as stupid as "W".

If partisan republican clowns can hunt down Clinton for adultering consenting adult behavior, then anyone can hunt down Allen for the racist he is, demonstrated from the past and the present - remember he just did the whole "macaca" thing a few weeks ago.

I'm surprised nobody has commented on this letter on the last page, from anonymous. Actually I'm not surprised that the righties haven't mentioned it...it's better to ignore letters like this, ain't it? Maybe you could announce a terror alert or something, that might really get our minds off it. Ooh! Or bring up Bill Clinton getting a blow job!

And by the way, "cracker" does not carry anything like the emotional/historical punch that the n-word does, so please give me a break with all this "ooh, YOU'RE a liberal racist, Tom Payne" crap. That's just silly.

"The Real George Felix Allen

I was acquainted with George between 1978 and 1981 when we both lived in Charlottesville, VA. I attended parties, football games, rugby matches, etc. with George. He routinely referred to black people as "niggers", "coons" or "boy". When watching a football game on TV one time, every time a black football player would make a touchdown for the opposing team George would yell, "Let's have a necktie party for that boy!" Necktie in this instance meant "lynching". For those skeptics out there who don't or can't believe how racist George is I recommend you get in touch with people who went on rugby tours with him in the 1970s. Ask them about his behavior on the trip to Paris when he called black Parisians "Nigger" to their face. On the tour to Mexico George came up with a series of "What's greasy?" jokes. "What's greasy and drives a chariot? Ben-Hurnandez". "What's greasy and rides a horse named Trigger? Roy Rodriguez". And so forth. Mexicans were "spicks" and "greasers". Go to the Virginia Rugby website and track down players from the 1970s; they will confirm all of this information. His obsession with race, and apparent hatred of minorities, was pathological in nature. This mental cruelty manifested itself in physical cruelty towards animals, as well. He was in the habit of wearing cowboy boots back in those days and one day I watched him kick his dog, Calhoun, who was nursing pups at the time, half way across his law office when she didn't obey quickly enough. This is the same law office where he had a huge Confederate flag on the wall next to his desk. George is not fit to represent the American people in public office of any sort. He is a racist to the core. I imagine George decided to settle in Virginia in order to be close to Richmond, which was the Capitol of the Confederacy. He should be ashamed of himself for not admitting to what so many people know and witnessed about his behavior. However, I don't think he's capable of an emotion like shame. "

(by the way, I'm a different anonymous than the one who wrote the above quoted letter.)

Dear Salon:

Senator George Allen is not a senator who should continue his run for reelection. If these stories are true, and our country's "crackerjack investigative journalists" must feel compelled to find the truth about this man. If the truth can come to the people, and I pray it will, then Senator Allen will be shown for what he is, or isn't. So far he does not look honest to me. A rope noose in a "STATESMAN'S" office, hanging as a ...what? A warning? A sick joke? And the N-word, belongs in the dustbin of history, not in our enlightened world.

Thank you Salon, for allowing a venue for a "whistle-blower", Dr. Shelton, to unburden his truths. Thank you truthtellers.

Diana

Olympia, WA.