Former Sen. George Allen (R-VA) apologized Friday for a racist slur he used against a Democratic campaign worker almost five years ago.
During his campaign for re-election in 2006, Allen attempted to bully S.R. Sidarth by calling him "macaca." The term is used by French and Belgians to describe black North Africans.
"During our last campaign, I never should have singled out that young man working for my opponent calling him a name," Allen admitted at the Faith and Family Conference Friday, according to Talking Points Memo. "He was just doing his job."
"I was wrong to do that to him and it diverted our campaign away from the real issues that families care about," he added. "I did not like losing. I’ve learned though that sometimes you can learn more from losing than you do from winning."
The former Virginia senator, who is running to regain the seat he lost, also said that he had paid a personal price for his remarks.
"My family had to endure a lot of taunts and insults because of my mistake, and I never want to have them have to go through something like that again."
