I happen to like and respect Larry Sabato a lot. But tonight on Hardball he was just flat out wrong to declare in one breath that George Allen had in fact used the n-word and then in the next breath to tell Chris Matthews that he "wasn't going to get into" the specifics of how he knew the accusation to be true.

You simply cannot make such a damning accusation on national television without backing it up. It's both irresponsible and unfair. If you're not going to source that kind of remark, you shouldn't make it in the first place.

Sabato is not an insignificant figure in the world of politics. Quite the contrary. Since he's now publicly supported the accusation that George Allen has used the n-word, isn't it reasonable to ask him to explain how or why he knows it to be true?