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Why Win If You're Going to Wimp Out? January 2, 2003 There is no reason for going soft on the Bush agenda, yet we're doing that more and more on everything from ending racial discrimination (aka: affirmative action) to tax fairness to Saddam. If we'd already dealt with him, we wouldn't be faced with this supposed dilemma over whether North Korea or Iraq should be our primary focus. It's not a dilemma, anyway. They're both going to be dealt with, so there's no reason to create these openings. Reuters reports that President Bush plans to unveil an economic stimulus package...

The panic that the Democrats face is real for a number of reasons. This kind of stuff makes me not worry so much about the Lott situation. What worries me more about that is not what the Democrats are saying, but what it's causing amongst the Republican and conservative ranks. The Lott situation was, and may or may not still be, on the brink of causing a deep fissure in conservative circles. A whole lot of people on our side saw self-serving grandstanding by certain elements of the conservative movement. The notion that it was never about Lott, but rather...

So Much More Than Lott So, already by Christmas the Republicans took their newly revealed "racist" Trent Lott and chopped him off like a hood ornament and left him folded up in the glove compartment like a paper napkin full of forgotten fruitcake. Nice crisis resolution, huh? Neat image management, right? Not so fast. One problem. Trent Lott is NOT a racist. Nobody believes Lott is a racist. His enemies don't believe that. His friends don't believe that. And nobody believes Trent Lott believes America would have been better off if Strom Thurmond had been elected president in 1948. What...

In my last column, I argued that Trent Lott had sold out the Republican Party by stating his support for affirmative action during a vital time, when the Supreme Court is set to consider a lawsuit against the University of Michigan’s racially-centered admissions process. I was hardly surprised at Lott’s willingness to place himself above the causes conservatives fight for; he is, above all, an unprincipled politician who has made these kinds of cheap concessions before. I never dreamed, however, that I would have to write a column bemoaning the fact that President Bush is considering doing the same thing....

The question is why does Trent Lott need to step down as the Senate Majority leader? If this happens will the GOP gain more votes in the black community? Of course not. We need to remember that the black people in America has been voting overwhelmingly for the Democrats for a very long time despite that this party has produced politicians and leaders that are proven racists like Al Gore Sr. father of Al Gore Jr. the new comedian on Saturday night live, or former KKK Robert Bird the Senator from West Virginia who recently used the word Nigger on...

<p>Did anyone hear Cal Thomas After Hours tonight? He phrased a question to Harold Ford about Lott. Instead of saying the direct quote of Lott ("I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either." he added the Segregationist Dixicrat Party in the question to Ford.</p>

Lott Should Go A bad Majority Leader gets worseBy NR Editors Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott "has proven himself better suited to the back bench, where he is at least a generally reliable conservative vote. And there is an alternative in Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles . . . Conservatives should encourage Nickles to make the — admittedly risky — challenge against Lott." Thus wrote National Review in November 1998 after the GOP midterm disaster that year. We have long considered Lott a clumsy and ineffective Republican leader, and his controversial Strom Thurmond birthday remarks are a spectacular confirmation of that...

<p>The buzz at Vice President Dick Cheney's Christmas reception last Tuesday was about remarks by Sen. Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, at a 100th birthday celebration for Sen. Strom Thurmond, South Carolina Republican.</p> <p>Mr. Lott said: "I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either." Mr. Lott was referring to Mr. Thurmond's 1948 presidential candidacy as a "Dixiecrat," a party formed to promote segregation and forestall the nascent civil-rights movement. Mr. Lott limply apologized for his "poor choice of words." How about a poor choice of thinking?</p>

<p>WASHINGTON -- Sen. Trent Lott's latest apology for racially charged remarks should suffice, the Senate's incoming No. 2 Republican leader said Saturday, vowing that a move for formal censure would produce a swift counter-attack against a prominent Democrat.</p> <p>"The first amendment (to a censure motion) that would be offered would be an amendment relating to Sen. (Robert) Byrd's comments in 2001," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.</p> <p>"I think he has to ride it out. Leaders take a lot of heat," former Sen. Bob Dole, Lott's predecessor as Senate GOP leader, said in an interview Saturday.</p>

<p>LULA, Miss. — Standing outside a grocery store in this tiny Delta hamlet, Milton Clemons says he wasn't offended by Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's recent praise of Strom Thurmond.</p> <p>"I don't think he knew what he said," said Mr. Clemons, 32, a black farmer who has sometimes voted for Mr. Lott. "I think he deserves a second chance."</p>

It’s Already Starting- Lott’s collateral damage. Yesterday a reporter called and read to me a statement made by Secretary of Education Rod Paige, saying, in effect, that he knew Trent Lott, Senator Lott was a friend of his, and Trent Lott was no racist. That's a very generous defense by Secretary Paige, I said, and he may well be right (I don't know Trent Lott personally). Such a spirit of forgiveness does Secretary Paige proud. But it's mostly beside the point. The issue is whether someone who has said what Senator Lott has said has the credibility on civil-rights issues...

"Do you know what the black man wants?", asked Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz to former White House Counsel John Dean while the two were flying on a plane trip together back in the early 1970s. Butz' answer to his own question, an alleged joke, is probably still too distasteful to print - even on Free Republic - so I'll give you the paraphrased answer that was printed in most of the media over a quarter-century ago. If you'd prefer the actual answer, it was "loose shoes, tight p---y and a warm place to s--t". The papers sanitized it to...

That was something much less than a ringing endorsement the President offered Trent Lott yesterday. First he steps onto a platform in Philadelphia and denounces Trent Lott by name. “Senator Lott’s comments,” he said, “do not reflect the spirit of the country. He has apologized, and rightly so” for remarks that the president characterized as “offensive” and “wrong.” Next, administration spokesman Ari Fleischer tells the press on the record that “the president doesn’t think Trent Lott needs to resign.” Odd formulation that, isn’t it? Fleischer didn’t offer a comment on Trent Lott himself (eg, “Senator Lott has the president’s confidence...

http://www.nationalreview.com/frum/diary121302.asp DEC. 13, 2002: ENTER BUSH The President Speaks That was something much less than a ringing endorsement the President offered Trent Lott yesterday. First he steps onto a platform in Philadelphia and denounces Trent Lott by name. “Senator Lott’s comments,” he said, “do not reflect the spirit of the country. He has apologized, and rightly so” for remarks that the president characterized as “offensive” and “wrong.” Next, administration spokesman Ari Fleischer tells the press on the record that “the president doesn’t think Trent Lott needs to resign.” Odd formulation that, isn’t it? Fleischer didn’t offer a comment on Trent...

I can't believe I am doing this -- defending Trent Lott. I have disdain for Trent Lott, but he is no Bill Clinton. We need to put things in perspective. ================================= MIDI - MICHAEL ROW THE BOAT ASHORE Lott had not raped anyone…unlike Clinton He's a wimp, but he's not scum…unlike Clinton There's no case of perjury…unlike Clinton And no interns on their knees…unlike Clinton Lott had never pardoned Mark Rich…unlike Clinton His wife is not some evil bitch…unlike Clinton No sex play with a crack cocaine whore…unlike Clinton No black son whom he just ignores…unlike Clinton No ChiCom sale...

AFTER A WEEK of confusion, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott held a press conference Friday in an attempt to clarify his position on segregation. "Segregation is a stain on our nation's soul," said Lott. "Let me be clear: Segregation and racism are immoral." Stop for a moment and think about that. Almost half a century after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, almost 40 years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and it's necessary to report that the nation's third-ranking Republican does, in fact, reject segregation. That commentators around the country have spent more than...

AFTER A WEEK of confusion, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott held a press conference Friday in an attempt to clarify his position on segregation. "Segregation is a stain on our nation's soul," said Lott. "Let me be clear: Segregation and racism are immoral." Stop for a moment and think about that. Almost half a century after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, almost 40 years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and it's necessary to report that the nation's third-ranking Republican does, in fact, reject segregation. That commentators around the country have spent more than...

PEGGY NOONAN Counsel for Trent What Lott told us last week, and what he should do now. Friday, December 13, 2002 12:01 a.m. People approach the Trent Lott story in political terms. Does it hurt the Republican Party? Do the Democrats get more out of the scandal if they successfully campaign for Mr. Lott's departure, or do they gain more if he continues as GOP leader, functioning as a handy daily symbol of the racism that resides in the secret heart of all conservatives? What did President Bush's comments mean? And by the way, why isn't the New York Times...

Today on Fox's "The Beltway Boys" Senator Trent Lott was referred to as an "albatross around the Republican's neck." I have heard this expression before but don't understand what it means. When I looked albatross up in the dictionary, all I got was "a large seabird." Perhaps some of you Freeper linguists could help out. Where does the expression "an albatross around's one's neck" come from and what does it mean?

Trent "Vacant" Lott is up to bat at 5:30 EST.