Fred Thompson has moved aggressively to sew up the racist vote for 2008. (Smart move. It may be the biggest voting block in the country.) He has appointed former Sen. George Allen of Virginia as a national co-chair of his presidential campaign:

Former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), whose White House hopes vanished in a “macaca” moment, was named a top adviser yesterday to Fred Thompson’s White House campaign.

Thompson operatives brushed off the potential baggage Allen might bring to the campaign

During his campaign for reelection to the Senate in 2006, Allen was caught on tape referring to a dark skinned person as a “macaca,” which is a racial epithet in much of the world. Allen was also criticized for his lifelong obsession with the Confederacy and for decorating his government office with a noose, which many see as a symbol of lynching from the Jim Crow era and slavery days.

Allen will also co-chair Thompson’s “National Campaign Leadership Team” with Liz Cheney, the vice president’s heterosexual daughter.