'Macaca' Brouhaha: Fierce Guessing on What Allen Meant

On the Raising Kaine blog, a leading anti-Allen Web site, one contributor devoted a column to debunking Allen's claim that Sidarth had a mohawk. The site posted photos -- provided by the Webb campaign -- that seemed to show Sidarth with a full head of hair.

"Macaca = Haircut?" the headline asks. "There's a lot that matches macaca to monkey, but I'm not having any luck matching macaca to Mohawk."

However, in photos of Sidarth taken from the side that were provided to The Post by Allen's campaign, the young man's hair does, indeed, suggest a mohawk style, with the sides shaved and hair running from his forehead to the back of his neck. Sidarth describes it as a mullet (think Billy Ray Cyrus).

By the end of the day, however, the question that remained was whether Allen's comments -- for which he apologized quickly -- would have any lasting impact on his reelection campaign or his likely-to-be-announced campaign for the presidency next year.

University of Virginia politics professor Larry Sabato said he believed they could. He called the comments "a potentially serious gaffe" and said they could hurt Allen's chances as a national candidate.

"This will be revisited if and when Allen runs for president. A gaffe like this can be rerun a thousand times in a national campaign," Sabato said. "Maybe it was an attempt to play to an all-white crowd in southwest Virginia, but it's also quite revealing about Allen's attitudes toward race."

Allen's advisers apparently came to the same conclusion. After his campaign manager ridiculed the issue, Allen apologized profusely, saying he meant no offense.

Will that be enough?

Richard C. Cranwell , the former Democratic majority leader in Virginia, who now leads the state Democratic Party, offered a hint at the answer from his party.

"It's kind of hard to throw a brick through someone's window and throw 10 bucks after it to make it all right," Cranwell said. "My guess is that George Allen would like to have those words back if he could have them."