From the article:

Shelton also told Salon that the future senator gave him the nickname "Wizard," because he shared a last name with Robert Shelton, who served in the 1960s as the imperial wizard of the United Klans of America, a group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. The radiologist said he decided earlier this year that he would go public with his concerns about Allen if a reporter ever called. About four months ago, when he heard that Allen was a possible candidate for president in 2008, Shelton began to write down some of the negative memories of his former teammate. He provided Salon excerpts of those notes last week.

Okay, who besides a stone bigot, or someone who made it his life's work to research bigots (and we know that George Felix Allen didn't do that), would make that sort of association? Or even know who Robert Shelton was?

Let's see:

-- Noose displayed in office, along with Confederate flag: Check.

-- Uses racial slur that in the French Tunisian slang of his mother means "nigger": Check.

-- Hangs out with the Council of Conservative Citizens (formerly the White Citizens Council): Check.

-- Tried to hide Jewish blood from his anti-Semitic running buddies even as he imitated their racist ways: Check.

No wonder even the folks at The Murdoch Standard want nothing to do with him.

"This has all the symptoms a mental disorder right? I mean, this can't be normal."

That is right.

If George Allen wants to get his head together and figure out his identity and the reason for his anger and aggression, that's great. He probably is in sore need of counseling, as Cary Tennis would tell him.

But should this head case continue on as a senator? No way.

And he may even lose to that Webb fella, who, despite being a Democrat, is no pussy. (Webb's feelings about gals in the military might get him some swing votes.) Allen wasn't going to win the nomination in '08 anyway...that is set for McCain (health permitting). Did he say "nigger" thirty years ago? I bet he did. I bet most people (excepting Salon habitues) said it sometime in the past week. Not just rich, white guys, either. All kinds of people: young Jews, old Koreans, anyone that happened upon the Whitney Houston/ Bobby Brown reality show. It is part of the lexicon. Allen is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but he didn't burn a cross, he didn't lynch anyone, and he used the word "macaca" instead of "nigger" to describe the Indian kid. (Had he used the latter, I admit, it would be curtains.) I understand the left wanting to use this against Allen...even though Bob Byrd gets a pass. (Hell, I understand the left supporting a plutocrat like Ned Lamont over a working-class Joe Lieberman.) It's cynical, tawdry, and childish..."Ooooooh, I'm telling!" But that is politics, I guess.

the difference between a racist like george allen who is a fake reformed racist and someone like strom thurmond who was a racist, but did actually reform his attitudes is the fact thqat allen continues to openly attack people by using racist slurs. for instance strom thurmnd loved having sex with black girls (even if they were 15 years old and that is legally rape), but strom changed his ways and helped many black people during his 600 years as senator. allen is just a fake sotherner who seemed to love the south for its worst characteristics and adopted those attitudes to justify his sick hatred. also, how do you fit a deer head into a mailbox? besides a severely sick imagination that must have taken a serious physical effort not just to hack off the head, but to stuff it into a mailbox. had allen read the godfather? since the movie came out in '72 it sems to be an original idea of using an animal's head as a means to intimidate. anyway, allen is pretty pathetic. what's most pathetic is the way he has used his mother as a shield, claiming he never knew of his family history and she has to publicly lie that she only recently told her children that she was jewish, so as to shield them from the fact, whatever that means.

well, he did reform in the sense that he accepted that black people should be treated like people now, which isn't nothing, but he never acknowledged that racism in the past had been wrong. He just said that "things" i.e. black people had changed in such a way that they should be given civil rights now, and implied that it had been equally reasonable not to do so in the past.

Bill Clinton has been accused of rape, Barney Frank had a prostitute running his biz from Frank's apartment, but Allen is unqualified because he used the word Nigger as a youth?

If this is the best the left can drag out...

I have a real problem with using the word "swiftboating" to describe this article. The verb swiftboat refers to a dishonest attack. This report, with three sources, is accurate. It contains value-neutral facts—facts that may lead to damning conclusions, but facts all the same.

A person could reasonably argue that this information reveals something about what kind of leader George Allen will be, and that is good enough for a reporter to report the story.

It's as though by using the word "swiftboat" you are arguing we should hide away facts from the public about George Allen, and democracy doesn't work like that. Let the public decide whether this is a non-issue.

What a sad day it is for Virginia Republicans ... to be confronted by more truth than they can manage about their heralded candidate, George Allen. And what a sad reminder for the rest of us, that we have to again consider how the character of a man can be so masked, as to breed surprise when the brittle, awful truth comes out.

Allen is the likely product of a very racist background it seems; one that includes elements of colonial narcissism and horrific self-shame. Although he has tried to cover up his past, it has come back to bite him, hard and with devestating accuracy. That he grew up in a home already potent with lies and half-truths seems to have set a strong tone; as such, I have little sympathy, as a Jew, for his mother's desire to hide and obliterate her past -- many others experienced the hell of the Shoah and never elected to mask their faith. Sadly, what she has done has contributed to the nastiness, shame, and aggression towards others that her son now repeatedly demonstrates. That her choices set a tone is now very apparent -- hide what you are apparently ashamed of and attempt to deny at all costs. This has played out with surprising success for Allen, until now. His current muddled attempt to suggest that his words are "made up" or his racism is "in the past" is belied by the reality of what he has said and done, and how he has responded.

Shame on any Virginian, let alone American who condones and excuses this sad excuse for a politician. And good for Salon for taking this to the public. It is knowledge we seem to need, again and again.