Allen Called Onto the Carpet

A friend of mine just sent me a transcript of Sen. George Allen (R-VA) having to answer a question on CNN pulled directly from Sirotablog. Here is the excerpt (see this link for the full transcript):

WOODRUFF: You and Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu introduced a resolution formally apologizing for the failure of the U.S. Senate to pass anti-lynching legislation. That is obviously getting some attention. But now there is a fellow at a Democratic think tank called the Center for American Progress, pointing out to the media that there was criticism of you during your campaign for governor, that you had promoted Confederate history month, that you opposed the Martin Luther King state holiday and so forth. They're asking, isn't there a contradiction here?

ALLEN: Virginia has a very complex history, and the Confederacy and the Civil War is part of our history. In Virginia, there's a lot of tourism in battlefield sites involved in that. One goes through life learning, and when one sees things that are wrong in the past and folks come to request my assistance, I wanted to help them. I think it's a deplorable lack of activity on the part of the U.S. Senate in years past to not pass an anti-lynching bill which would have helped, I think, prevent a lot of these deaths as well as help prosecute those involved in it. I could go through all of my record, but I'm one who's grown up believing that every person, regardless of their race, their gender, their religion or ethnicity ought to have an equal opportunity to compete and succeed...

Clearly, George Allen still has no answer for his embarassing past.