SIX months ago George Allen, a right-wing Republican beloved of Christian conservatives, was regarded as not only a shoo-in for re-election to the Senate this autumn but also a serious contender for the presidential nomination in 2008.

Since then his presidential ambitions, along with his reputation and possibly his political career, have begun to unravel, so much so that Democrats are now eyeing his Virginia seat as one of the six they need to win if they are to regain control of the Senate on November 7.

Behind Mr Allen’s sudden vulnerability has been a drip-feed of evidence that he is, at best, insensitive on racial issues. First came a magazine profile which examined his transformation from privileged Californian child into a tobacco-chewing, cowboy-booted Southerner. This disclosed how he displayed a Confederate flag on his living room wall and a hangman’s noose on his desk.

That might have been it, were not for an incident in August when the senator referred to his opponent’s dark-skinned aide as “macaca” — a word derived from “monkey” — which is used as a racial slur in French-speaking North Africa. Mr Allen apologised repeatedly, saying the epithet was “made-up”. But, because his mother was born in Tunis, there was speculation that he had learnt it from her. Reporters were soon looking into the background of Etty Allen and, this month, claims were published that she was born into a Jewish family before converting after the Second World War.

When challenged about this in a TV debate, Mr Allen reacted furiously to people casting “aspersions” on his background, insisting his mother was “raised a Christian”.

But two days later his mother admitted that she had, only last month, told her son that she was brought up as a Jew in Tunisia. Mr Allen’s efforts to counter any impression that he was embarrassed by this heritage, including a tearful TV interview, were undermined by the clumsiness of his subsequent remark that “I still had a ham sandwich for lunch”.

This week he has been forced to do more firefighting on the race issue with three people, including Larry Sabato, a respected political commentator, saying they had heard Mr Allen use the word “nigger”.

The senator has vehemently denied that the “N-word” was “ever part of my vocabulary”. His campaign has pointed out that he has been endorsed by a black Democratic politician because of his support for African-American universities.

But polls show Jim Webb, his Democratic rival, closing fast. He has pretty good conservative credentials himself, having been a Navy Secretary in Ronald Reagan’s Administration, as well as a decorated Vietnam veteran campaigning in combat boots given to him by his son, who is serving in Iraq.

And, like Mr Allen, he also chews tobacco.

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