Whose Words Are These?

But questions about Allen's racial attitudes won't go away until voters figure out just what to believe, just who Allen really is. Partisans on both sides think they already know: On my blog's comment boards, dozens of people contend that the N-word was "in the air" in the 1970s and that if Allen used the slur in conversation, that distinguished him hardly at all. At least as many people argue that the word has always been powerfully ugly and that folks who were brought up right would never have used it, no matter what was "in the air."

For those who don't have a horse in this race, the imperative is to determine a fact: George Allen either did or didn't make routine, casual and bigoted use of the slur.

I asked several historians how they judge stories told by people decades after events took place.

"It's an art," said Robert Dallek, a biographer of Lyndon Johnson who has just completed "Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power." "You have to make judgments about what seems to be closest to the truth. As a historian, I want to get as much written material as I can. I have 20,000 pages of Kissinger's phone transcripts. With interviews, it's much harder. You have to be very skeptical."

So how do you know who is telling the truth?

Dallek suggested looking at: "Who is speaking? What are their motives? And how many witnesses can you bring to bear? You see what the balance is. Thirty years later, memories are hazy. But you do get some good anecdotes, and then you have to decide."

When conflicting accounts prohibit a definitive finding, the historian -- and the voter -- must go with what adds up, what feels right. "It's what resonates with what you know," Dallek said.

What we know: George Allen posed for his high school yearbook photo -- in California -- wearing a Confederate flag pin. He kept a Confederate flag in his living room. He displayed a noose in his law office.

Now he stands accused of using racial slurs. You can feel the resonance across all of Virginia.

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