University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato has "joined one of Sen. George Allen's former college football teammates in claiming the senator used a racial slur to refer to blacks in the early 1970s[.]" The AP story reports:

Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, would not tell The Associated Press how he knew Allen used the n-word. He told Chris Matthews on MSNBC that he did not know whether it was true that Allen used the word frequently while in college.

"I'm simply going to stay with what I know is the case and the fact is he did use the n-word, whether he's denying it or not," Sabato said.

Having weighed in last night on Michael Scherer's original Salon column that raised the issue, I think it is appropriate to note Professor Sabato's mystifying contribution to the story.