Icepicks and Nukes

According to Time magazine, Jane Harman is the most recent lawmaker to have an FBI problem.

Did a Democratic member of Congress improperly enlist the support of a major pro-Israel lobbying group to try to win a top committee assignment? That’s the question at the heart of an ongoing investigation by the FBI and Justice Department prosecutors, who are examining whether Rep. Jane Harman of California and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) may have violated the law in a scheme to get Harman reappointed as the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, according to knowledgeable sources in and out of the U.S. government.

The sources tell TIME that the investigation by Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has simmered out of sight since about the middle of last year, is examining whether Harman and AIPAC arranged for wealthy supporters to lobby House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Harman’s behalf.

Regardless of the validity of the allegations, this should provide the GOP ammunition to offset attacks by Democrats on ethics and investigation issues during the final stretch of the election season.

A couple of days ago, I mentioned the explosive allegation first reported by Salon.com that Senator George Allen (R-Virginia) stuffed a severed deer’s head in the mailbox of a house in an African American neighborhood. Again, I will note in fairness to Allen that he denied the allegations during an interview he gave to the Associated Press.

Looks like the alleged Godfather stunt is now being checked in the historical archives:

I spoke to a deputy in the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office late yesterday afternoon. They are looking though old records for any report of a deer’s head stuffed into a black family’s mailbox. This is an active investigation again- I have the cell phone number of deputy working on the case.

More bad news for Senator Allen on the same allegation – the New Republic’s Ryan Lizza has found a second, on the record source who heard about the incident from one of the men who was there when it happened.

A former college classmate of George Allen and Ken Shelton, the North Carolina radiologist who says Allen regularly used the N-word in the 1970s and once stuck the head of a deer in the mailbox of a black family, has come forward to corroborate one of Shelton’s accusations.

“I’m not out to get George Allen,” says George Beam, a 53 year-old technical manager in the nuclear industry, who lives in Forest, Virginia and who spoke to The New Republic this morning. “I just think Kenny Shelton is a fine, upstanding person, and I know he is telling the truth.”

Beam was roommates with Billy Lanahan, now deceased, who along with Allen and Shelton, was the third member of the now infamous hunting party. According to Beam, Lanahan later told him the bizarre story of the three men stuffing the deer head into a mailbox. He says Lanahan did not tell him that the prank had any racial overtones.

“Some time drinking a beer at U Heights,” Beam says, referring to the campus housing complex where Beam, Lanahan, and Allen all lived, “Lanahan told me they went hunting and killed a deer. All I know is they cut off a deer head and stuck it in someone’s mailbox. … He didn’t say it was racial — just said they stuck it in a mailbox as a prank.”

For Allen’s sake, I hope this winds up being a wild goose chase, because if it is confirmed that this incident did happen, 1) his credibility will be shot, and 2) his political career will be over.

Drip, drip, drip…

The New York Times has another person on the record who remembers Senator George Allen (R-Virginia) making racist comments, this time in the early 1980’s. This person is independent of the three former football teammates who spoke with Salon.com.

Separately, Professor Larry Sabato of UVA, who was a classmate of Allen’s at UVA in the 70’s and is considered one of the most renown political scientists and observers in the country, told Chris Matthews that he didn’t believe Allen’s denials.

The key part of the interview:

MATTHEWS: What about the charges that he actually used bad language that some of us are familiar with in this country, in fact most Americans are, the bad language about people from another background?
SABATO: Well, I can’t say how frequently he did it, but I don’t believe him when he denies ever having done it. [Matthews begins talking over him] That is just not true.
MATTHEWS: That in this country, for that generation, is a very hard test. The accusation here I believe is that he was distinctive in what is being called racial hatred, that he regularly used an awful word, the N-word, with some sort of attitude. Is that true?
SABATO: Well, I’m simply going to say that I’m going to stay with I know is the case, and the fact is that he did use the N-word, whether he’s denying it now or not. He did use it. It was the 70’s, you’re right, it was a harsh term. It was an obscenity as far as I’m concerned.
…
MATTHEWS: But you say he used the N-word?
SABATO: That is correct.

Whether this is based on direct first-hand insight or rumors and hearsay from the time, Sabato’s words probably carry more weight on this race and Senator Allen than most people because of his longstanding ties to the state and his understanding of Virginia and national politics.

Now, in fairness to Allen, only three of his former teammates have said he used racist language, and the graduate student who talked to the New York Times. He also denied the allegations in the Salon.com article in an interview with the Associated Press:

“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 bottom line: it is now a media open season on George Allen’s past comments or views on race. If there is any truth to this or any more people who come forward to the news media on the record, Allen will be in very serious trouble with about 5 weeks to go before Election Day.

Drip, drip, drip…

The New York Times has another person on the record who remembers Senator George Allen (R-Virginia) making racist comments, this time in the early 1980’s. This person is independent of the three former football teammates who spoke with Salon.com.

Separately, Professor Larry Sabato of UVA, who was a classmate of Allen’s at UVA in the 70’s and is considered one of the most renown political scientists and observers in the country, told Chris Matthews that he didn’t believe Allen’s denials.

The key part of the interview:

MATTHEWS: What about the charges that he actually used bad language that some of us are familiar with in this country, in fact most Americans are, the bad language about people from another background?
SABATO: Well, I can’t say how frequently he did it, but I don’t believe him when he denies ever having done it. [Matthews begins talking over him] That is just not true.
MATTHEWS: That in this country, for that generation, is a very hard test. The accusation here I believe is that he was distinctive in what is being called racial hatred, that he regularly used an awful word, the N-word, with some sort of attitude. Is that true?
SABATO: Well, I’m simply going to say that I’m going to stay with I know is the case, and the fact is that he did use the N-word, whether he’s denying it now or not. He did use it. It was the 70’s, you’re right, it was a harsh term. It was an obscenity as far as I’m concerned.
…
MATTHEWS: But you say he used the N-word?
SABATO: That is correct.

Whether this is based on direct first-hand insight or rumors and hearsay from the time, Sabato’s words probably carry more weight on this race and Senator Allen than most people because of his longstanding ties to the state and his understanding of Virginia and national politics.

Now, in fairness to Allen, only three of his former teammates have said he used racist language, and the graduate student who talked to the New York Times. He also denied the allegations in the Salon.com article in an interview with the Associated Press:

“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 bottom line: it is now a media open season on George Allen’s past comments or views on race. If there is any truth to this or any more people who come forward to the news media on the record, Allen will be in very serious trouble with about 5 weeks to go before Election Day.

Salon.com is reporting that three of Senator George Allen’s (R-Virginia) college football teammates remember him making racist comments. One is quoted on the record, the other two were on background.

The whole piece is well written and well-sourced in terms of Allen’s former teammates, who have positive, negative, or indifferent memories of when they knew him as a football player at UVA. Allen’s senate office and re-election campaign did not return calls for comment.

The most damning and shocking allegation in the piece:

Shelton [Allen’s former teammate who went on the record with his allegations] said he also remembers a disturbing deer hunting trip with Allen on land that was owned by the family of Billy Lanahan, a wide receiver on the team. After they had killed a deer, Shelton said he remembers Allen asking Lanahan where the local black residents lived. Shelton said Allen then drove the three of them to that neighborhood with the severed head of the deer. “He proceeded to take the doe’s head and stuff it into a mailbox,” Shelton said.

If there is any truth to any of these allegations, Allen’s political ambitions for the White House are toast. He may not even survive his re-election bid for the Senate. First there was the controversy over his “macaca” comments to a Webb volunteer, then there was the “controversy” over how he reacted to a reporter’s poorly phrased question about his Jewish heritage, and now this. He probably could have survived any of those individually without serious damage to his political career, but take all three together and I think he may want to update his resume once November comes around.