George,

The time to believe George Allen had a post-macaca humanism epiphany is when he informs his core GOP constituency of it. His mea culpa before a hostile black audience where he has no support is routine opportunistic politicking. Nothing more.

On the other hand, he's not a closet authoritarian set on dictating absurdly low speed limits on city arteries. Alas, that's one of our guys.

Rey Barry (electronic mail, September 14, 2006)

Editor's Note: An index to coverage of George Allen on the Loper website may be found at http://loper.org/~george/archives/2006/Aug/925.html