George Allen Regrets Calling Webb Staffer Name

Former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) said he “screwed up” when he used a disputed epithet to refer to an opponent’s Indian-American staffer as “macaca.”

“I screwed up,” Allen said during a speech at the University of Central Florida. “It wasn’t an intentional thing, if I had any idea that they’d make such an issue out of a non-existing word.

“I should have never called him anything but yellow shirt,” Allen said.

Allen lost to Democrat Jim Webb in 2006 after the incident, which was caught on video and posted to YouTube, was roundly criticized as racially insensitive.

Allen made the remarks at the university during a speech to the school’s College Republicans chapter in which he talked up the need for greater energy independence for the United States.

–Michael O’Brien