[omnivore]

"...Coleman Sharpton, was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was Strom Thurmond's great-great-grandfather."

They may have been trying to spin the headline to make it ("relative") sound closer, but it's actually farther. Sen. Thurmond was already on a different branch of his family tree by the time Coleman Sharpton came into the picture. All this says was that the slave-owner had a common grandfather with the line that led to the Senator.

[omnivore]

Could we clear all this up by having Sen. Trent Lott apologize about 500 more times? Or resign some committee position?