Randall Kennedy of Harvard Law School suggests in a New Republic article that Prof. Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia is one of those accusing Sen. George Allen of using the “N-word”:

[Allen] has been accused of repeatedly referring to blacks as “niggers” during his college years in the 1970s… Allen does not deny that referring to blacks derogatorily as “niggers” would have been terribly wrong. He swears, though, that he did not and does not use such language…

I don’t believe Allen’s denial. His accusers, including Professor Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia, are credible.

But Sabato later clarified his ambiguous statements about Allen on “Hardball,” admitting that he never heard Allen use such language:

One of Virginia’s best-known political analysts said he had never personally heard Sen. George Allen use racial epithets, despite saying on television a day earlier that the senator “did use the n-word.”

Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said Tuesday in an e-mail to The Associated Press, “I didn’t personally hear GFA (Allen’s initials) say the n-word.

“My conclusion is based on the very credible testimony I have heard for weeks, mainly from people I personally know and knew in the ’70s,” Sabato wrote.

Sabato, a classmate of Allen’s at the University of Virginia in the early 1970s, said Monday on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” that he knew Allen had used racial slurs, but declined to say whether he had witnessed them.

As such, Sabato’s credibility is irrelevant. While several people have come forward to claim that they heard Allen using racially derogatory language, Sabato is not one of them.