George Allen: Racist or Idiot?

I suppose that is not exactly the sort of Hobson's choice with which Virginia's George Allen would like to have to see the media wrestle in these late days of his senatorial campaign and early days of what clearly appears to be a presidential candidacy, but really, what other choices are there? Recently the Virginia Senator used a racial slur, for which he has now apologized, against a 20 year old staffer for his Democratic opponent, S. R. Sidarth. Allen either called Sidarth a macaca or a macaque, either one of which is pretty clearly aimed as an ethnic slur. I've addressed the Allen race situation, heretofore a strange romance with the old Confederacy and its neobourbon manifestations here and here in the last few months, and largely in the context of his national ambitions. One would think this recurring theme would be damaging to Allan at the state level as well. We shall see what effect it has on Virginia's voters. The best coverage of this ongoing story can be found interspersed throughout TNR's "The Plank."