Lott Decried For Part Of Salute to Thurmond(Senate Leader Hails Colleague's Run As Segregationist)

Washington Post ^ | 12/07/2002 | Thomas B. Edsall

[KQQL]

Senate Republican leader Trent Lott of Mississippi has provoked criticism by saying the United States would have been better off if then-segregationist candidate Strom Thurmond had won the presidency in 1948.

Speaking Thursday at a 100th birthday party and retirement celebration for Sen. Thurmond (R-S.C.) in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, 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."

[SerpentDove]

>>...punishing speech is not a good
slope to get on.because,your speech or mine could be next and who knows who the speech police might be.>>

Punishing speech? or holding our representatives accountable for what they say? We certainly must have the latter.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Which U.S. Senator is a former member of the Ku Klux Klan?

Which U.S. Senator wasn't just a member of the KKK but was a "Kleagle" -- an official recruiter who signed up members for $10 a head?

Which U.S. Senator said he joined because it "offered excitement" and because the Klan was an "effective force" in "promoting traditional American values."

Which U.S. Senator wrote the following, three years after he claims to have ended his ties with the KKK: "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the Union."

Which U.S. Senator also wrote that he would never fight "with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

Which U.S. Senator later filibustered the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act -- supported by a majority of those "mean-spirited" Republicans -- for more than 14 hours.

Which U.S. Senator opposed the nominations of the Supreme Court's two black justices, liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas.

Which U.S. Senator recently warned on national television: "There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."

I'll give you a hint. It wasn't Strom Thurmond.

[CenterRight]

Here's a link to a one-hour video and audio recording of the C-SPAN broadcast of Thurmond's birthday celebration. It includes Lott's entire speech. I have in on my screen now and I'm reviewing it.

http://www.c-span.org/politics/

The link to the Javascript is at about the center of the C-SPAN page. I'll transcribe the remarks by Lott, preceding his "all these problems" statement. There is no printed transcript on the Internet that I can find, at least not yet.

Feel free to click on the link above, download the 1-hour recording and follow along with me. If you're following along with me, fast-forward to exactly halfway through the recording. That is where Lott's speech starts.

Dole introduced Lott by mentioning that when Strom Thurmond was landing by glider in Normandy on June 6, 1944 Trent Lott was only three years old. http://www.c-span.org/politics/

Verbatim transcript of the beginning of Trent Lott's speech:

Well thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you my good friend and my predecessor, my hero, Bob Dole, for that introduction, that very brief introduction I might add [Laughter] But for Senator Strom Thurmond's family and friends and admirers all, it's a great pleasure for me to be here with you today, and I know that you're enjoying every minute of this. And I knew that the previous remarks would be just as they were. I mean, after all, Bob Dole received the Republican nomination and dang near was elected President of the United States telling Strom Thurmond jokes. [Laughter] If he'd just gotten himself some new material there toward the end he would have done it. [Laughter] I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for President we voted for him. [Laughter] We're proud of it. [More laughter] 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 WAS JOKING, PEOPLE.

The quotation that has been bandied about as so-called "proof" of Lott's "racism" was clearly told for laughs. It was at the beginning of the speech, after Dole told a few Strom Thurmond jokes. Then Lott stood up and said that in 1996, Dole was nominated for President "and dang near was elected President of the United States telling Strom Thurmond jokes."

Then came the quotation that everyone is bleating about, and it got a few laughs, exactly as Lott had clearly intended. Then came more jokes, including one about how "the Capitol froze over" inserted in place of "hell freezes over," and a reference to Dole's Pepsi commercial with Britney Spears.

[The Great Satan]

Lott's inhaled a great deal of hairspray over a lifetime in politics. That's the only possible explanation for this amazing gaffe.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Which U.S. Senator is a former member of the Ku Klux Klan?

I posted the same message over at DU. Within minutes the post was deleted and my posting rights were revoked.

I must have hit a nerve. ;-)

[CenterRight]

Edward Kennedy, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, drove his car off a bridge and killed his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. If his name hadn't been Kennedy, he would have gone to prison for manslaughter.

Daniel Inouye, a Democratic senator from Hawaii, reportedly raped a woman.

Joe Biden, a Democratic senator from Delaware, is a plagiarist.

Barney Frank, a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, had a gay prostitution ring in his basement.

Jim McDermott, a Democratic congressman from Washington state, passed a recording of a phone conversation (that had been made without the participants' knowledge) to a newspaper. One of the participants in the phone conversation was Newt Gingrich. McDermott's action was a felony under state law.

Hillary Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York, reportedly called a Jewish political advisor a "fu**ing Jew ba**ard." Her husband, Bill Clinton, repeatedly referred to the black vote as "the ni**er vote."

Jesse Jackson called Jews "Hymies" and New York City "Hymietown." Louis Farrakhan called Judaism a "gutter religion."

But let's go out and lynch Trent Lott.

[ApesForEvolution]

4 days later it looks as it you were prophetic.

[MWS]

Well, it was a foregone conclusion that the Dems would jump on this. They will try to milk this for all it is worth. My greatest fear is that they are going to pounce on this as an excuse to keep our judges from the bench.

Senator Lott is a liability. He certainly is no racist, but the sooner we drop him the better.

[ApesForEvolution]

The only joy in this is that the Vacant Lott won't be the face of the all-too-critical GOP Senate Majority anymore and the RATS will be on record in the latest rounds of 'racial impropriety' as being against it. As far as I'm concerned, a win-win and the timing is just right. Thanks Trent.

[FBD]

"I'm trying to recall,were many great strides against segregation made during the term of the winner of that election,1949-early 1953?

It was definitely on the table, anyway...

[William McKinley]

This what you are looking for?

[eaglebeak]

Old news.

http://www.ferris.edu/isar/Institut/CCC/crouch07.htm

[AppyPappy]

Crap like this is why 90%+ African Americans vote RATS......

HAHAHAHAHA....yeah, that's the reason.

[Nita Nuprez]

No, but it was close. cloud8 found it and posted a link back on this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/805912/posts?page=77#77

When that thread was originally posted last week, I had read the words "I cannot help thinking that this story is not over" and thought those words were stated by the poster. It seemed at the time that the poster was trying to stir up trouble and make a mountain out of a molehill.

But now I see that the poster had actually snipped an excerpt from the National Review column he was posting and those weren't his words at all.

Thanks for your help, William. :-)

[KQQL]

In 1911 Truman (who was 27) wrote to his future wife, Bess: "I think one man is just as good as another so long as he's honest and decent and not a nigger or a Chinaman. Uncle Will [probably Wfiliam Yount, the brother of Truman's mother] says that the Lord made a white man from dust, a nigger from mud, then He threw up what was left and it came down a Chinaman."
Truman continued: "[I] am strongly of the opinion Negroes ought to be in Africa, yellow men in Asia and white men in Europe and America."
http://reformed-theology.org/jbs/html/bipartisan_bigotry.htm

Hmmmm Truman v Thurm V Dewey....Looks like Dewey should have won........because Truman and Thurm were racist back in 1948

[eaglebeak]

That's not the point. We could all name various racist comments running back throughout history--and we wouldn't have to link from the John Birch Society webpage to do it. The point is that we all have a responsibility as Americans to denounce this kind of thing, regardless of political party or ideology, particularly when it comes to the leaders of the United States. Lott is up to his ears in this stuff and has been for a long time.