http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060825/NEWS01/60825001Sen. George Allen gave the slip to protesters, supporters and city officials today, bypassing an afternoon stop in downtown Staunton for an unannounced lunch break at a local drive-in restaurant.
The last-minute change in plans came minutes after a man identifying himself as a University of Virginia law school student broke in front of reporters at an event at Staunton’s Holiday Inn, forcefully asking the senator, “Have you ever used the word n-----?”
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The senator was expected to roll up to City Hall half an hour later, but about a dozen Democratic protesters, an equal number of local Republicans and several city council members and city staff who had gathered along Beverley Street were left shaking their heads.
Slowly, word spread that he was a no-show.
Allen, it turned out, had instead stopped at Wright’s Dairy-Rite, a retro-1950s diner down the road that often serves as a popular way station for visiting politicians.