George Allen, fading star

George Allen is well on his way towards avoiding all that nasty effort that goes into a Presidential run. If he does something dumb like this again, his candidacy will be over by 2007:

Sen. George Allen apologized Tuesday for remarks that offended a man of Indian descent who was tracking the Republican's re-election campaign for Democratic challenger Jim Webb.

S.R. Sidarth said he felt Allen was singling him out because of his race when the senator called him "Macaca" during a GOP rally Friday at Breaks, Va., near the Kentucky border.

"In no way was it meant to demean him, and I'm sorry if he was offended," Allen said in a telephone interview.

Allen, who is positioning himself for a possible run for president in 2008, said the name was "just made up" and that he had no idea that macaca is a genus of monkeys including macaques. The name also could be spelled Makaka, which is a city in South Africa.

The article went on to mention that Allen used to keep a noose in his office during his days as a lawyer. It must have been for his presidential hopes.