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Chicken Soup for the Macaca Soul

George Allen’s book of moral lessons

by
Allison Hoffman
July 08, 2009
Allen campaigning for Senate in 2006.(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Allen campaigning for Senate in 2006.(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Regnery, the conservative publishing house, announced yesterday that former Virginia senator George Allen will be joining its author list with a book, due out next year, called The Triumph of Character: What Washington Can Learn from the World of Sports. Allen, you may recall, was famously swept off the national stage in 2006 after he was captured on camera calling S.R. Sidarth, a University of Virginia student who was volunteering as a roving cameraman for Allen’s Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, “macaca.” As in, “So, welcome, let’s give a welcome to Macaca here. Welcome to America, and the real world of Virginia.” “Macaca,” as the Forward went on to reveal, is Tunisian slang for blacks, which prompted a round of questioning from the press that ultimately forced Allen, after complaining that reporters were “making aspersions,” to reveal that his mother, Henrietta, was the scion of one of Tunis’ most prominent Jewish families—something it was never clear why he went to such lengths to conceal.

According to Regnery’s press release, Allen plans to write from his personal experience as a college football and rugby player at the University of Virginia—probably a smart move, since relying on the lessons he learned from his father, legendary Redskins coach George Allen Sr., would open up questions about when he planned to pen a companion volume on lessons he learned from his mother, who spent her adult life concealing her religious background for the sake of her husband’s and son’s careers.

Allison Hoffman is a senior editor at Tablet Magazine. Her Twitter feed is @allisont_dc.