Allen’s heritage became an issue in the Virginia Senate campaign Monday, when television reporter Peggy Fox raised it at a televised debate in front of 600 business executives in Fairfax County. Allen repeated what he has said in the past: “My mother’s French-Italian with a little Spanish blood in her. And I was raised as she was, as far as I know, raised as a Christian.”

In fact, Allen had just recently learned about their Jewish roots when he made those comments. Allen declined to comment, but his mother said she had sworn him to secrecy. ~The Washington Post

So, in short, when Allen pretended to be offended at Fox’s question on Monday and then made a statement that turns out to be have been false (i.e., that his mother was raised a Christian), he did not even have the excuse of ignorance.  Maybe this topic has no place in this or any election, and I find it hard to see how it could really matter, but there remains something strange about it.  If he knew about this on Monday–and quite a few people had figured out his family background apparently a long time before last month–why the harsh reaction and the non sequitur lecture on religious freedom?  In any case, this has got to be the only time in American politics in recent memory that I know of where a politician has discovered Jewish ancestry and did not seek to exploit that aspect of his heritage for all it was worth. 

Update: Allen may resent people “casting aspersions” about religious identity, but his campaign manager has no problem casting asperions about their adversaries’ anti-Semitism.