George Allen finally apologizes to 'Macaca' target

After Virginia Senator George Allen and his campaign repeatedly lied about having apologized directly to S.R. Sidarth for calling him "macaca," the sh*tstorm of bad publicity (and tanking polls) surrounding the matter finally got so bad he did the right thing and picked up the phone and said he was sorry.

Virginia Sen. George Allen apologized directly to S.R. Sidarth yesterday, telling the 20-year-old Democratic campaign staffer that he was sorry for offending him with remarks that have generated nationwide criticism for being racially insensitive.

Allen's telephone call to Sidarth was the first direct contact between the two since Allen (R) was caught by Sidarth's video camera calling him a "macaca" and welcoming the Fairfax native to "America and the real world of Virginia." Sidarth said Allen told him that the apology was "from his heart."

"His main point was he was sorry he offended me," Sidarth, a fourth-year University of Virginia student, said in an interview later. "He realized how much he offended me from the comments I made in the media."

..."I still have some questions about why it took so long, but, yes, he did the right thing," Sidarth said. Asked whether he thought the apology was sincere, Sidarth declined to comment.

Unfortunately, Allen's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, tried to spin this debacle into some sort of attack by the Left, a feeding frenzy -- uh, no one made Allen use the slur in the first place.

Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report, said the Allen campaign is pursuing a two-pronged strategy aimed at convincing some voters that Allen is sorry while motivating his base with attacks against liberals and the media.

"They need a better foil," Cook said. "They need to shift this into 'We're the persecuted.' It was a very, very calculated move."

Related:
* George Allen: the stale cracker