George Allen
George Felix Allen is, to put it nicely, dinosaur flatulence.
Allen was Governor of and later a Senator from Virginia. Prior to that, he was best known for being the son of the Washington Redskins and Los Angeles Rams head coach, and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame George Allen Sr. He succeeded Douglas Wilder (the first black governor of a state since reconstruction) in the former office, and won election over war hero and son in law of Lyndon Johnson, Charles Robb, for the latter. Thus, he did a good job in messing up in the footsteps of true American heroes.
He had a noose hanging in his office from 1998 to 2000, and at first called it 'more of a lasso' with 'nothing to do with lynching'. In 2006, he came clean, calling it a 'little noose'.
One day, he scheduled a hearing of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee on a Monday when he was supposed to be campaigning. He rescheduled it for Tuesday because he's 'Jewish, and Monday is Yom Kippur' (in actuality, he learned of his heritage a few weeks earlier, ate lots of pork, and was raised Episcopalian).
We all know the macaca story.