I neglected to note that George Allen headed up to New Hampshire a week ago Saturday for some early 2008 campaigning after passing his anti-lynching resolution. Luckily, he didn’t escape questions about his ugly racial history. Here’s the Richmond Times-Dispatch report:

Kathy Sullivan of Manchester, chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said she knew little about Allen, other than his father was a good football (Washington Redskins) coach, but “what’s with the noose in his office?”

While practicing law in Charlottesville, Allen at one point kept a noose in the office. He said this merely was in keeping with the western motif of the office.

Two weeks ago, Allen helped lead the Senate in issuing a formal apology for lynching. Southern Democrats had used the filibuster for decades to block the apology.

Allen said the black activist and comedian Dick Gregory persuaded him to issue the apology.

And here’s the Virginian-Pilot:

Allen has taken deft steps to shore up his conservative credentials and address concerns about his racial sensitivity. Normally loath to reveal his inner thoughts, Allen delivered an uncharacteristic series of speeches this year professing the importance of faith in his life. Criticized in Virginia for defending Confederate symbols and once displaying a noose in his law office, Allen won appreciation from many blacks this month by co-sponsoring a Senate resolution apologizing for lynchings that claimed the lives of more than 4,700 Americans.

It’s interesting that neither reporter gives any credence to Allen’s disingenuous claim that the noose was “more of a lasso.”

Update 7/4: Speaking of the noose, I just found a question from a June 13 press conference that almost sounds like someone was messing with Allen:

QUESTION: Senator Allen, this is an important move, but a symbolic one. The symbol of the noose continues to terrorize people, sometimes in their workplaces or near their homes. What should be done perhaps to strengthen hate crimes about showing nooses and intimidating people with them?

Obviously, Allen didn’t commit a hate crime or use the noose to terrorize people, but a question about the symbolic power of the noose has obvious implications for him. (His answer didn’t get into anything related to his history on this issue.)