George Allen on Principles & Values Republican Senate Challenger

2006: Caught by "tracker" who followed him around everywhere

"This fella here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca or whatever his name is, he's with my opponent, he's following us around everywhere. And that's just great. So welcome. Let's give a welcome to macaca here. Welcome to America, and the real world of Virginia."

On the basis of that, the tracker, S. R. Sidarth, told the Washington Post, "I think [Senator Allen] was doing it because I was the only person of color there, and it was useful for him in inciting his audience." How self-absorbed do you have to be to think that you were singled out for being a "person of color" when you also happened to be the only person in the audience doing opposition research for the rival candidate. But Allen was a Republican and Sidarth was of Indian descent--not black, but good enough.

Recently discovered he has Jewish heritage

The Allen campaign opened the door to the question by not providing answers to the Jewish newspaper the Forward, which reported late last month that Allen’s mother, Henrietta, a French Tunisian, was “likely” Jewish by birth. A week earlier, the senator’s staff said they were not familiar with any Jewish background.

The senator’s mother got dragged into public discussion because of speculation that Allen had picked up the word “macaca” from her. Allen has apologized for using the word -- a racial slur in some cultures -- to describe an Indian American volunteer for Webb’s campaign.

Raised Christian with Jewish ancestry; religion not relevant

(Booing from the audience)

A: I’m glad you all have that reaction. You know what our first freedom in this country was? Freedom of religion. To be getting into what religion my mother is, I’d like to ask you, why is that relevant?

Q: Honesty.

A: My mother’s French-Italian, with a little Spanish blood in her. And I was raised as she was, as far as I know, raised as a Christian. My mother’s father was incarcerated by the Nazis in World War II. And of all people in my life who told me about tolerance and not judging people by their religious beliefs or their ethnicity or their race, it is my mother.

Conservative alternative to McCain in presidential jockeying

Calls himself “Common sense” conservative populist

Voted YES on confirming Samuel Alito as Supreme Court Justice.

Voted YES on confirming John Roberts for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.