Best of the Web (Harsh assesment of Lott)

Did Lott say "if we'd had segregation we wouldn't have these problems today"? No. He could easily have been referring to the fact that Thurmond was strong on defense and immigration and we wouldn't have the terrorism problem we had today. I don't think his comments had anything to do with race, but is another race-baiting tactic by the Dems. BTW, I'm not a Lott supporter and have never defended him before.

That seems like a stretch. The reason that Thurmond ran for president was to promulgate segregation. It seems to me that Lott must go.

Trent "notta" Lott doesn't know much of the time what he says. He just flaps those jowles.

Truly no one believes the only reason Thurmond ran was to promulgate segregation? Puhleeze. He did have a few other issues, such as a strong defense, etc. It's as much a stretch to assume that Lott was making a racist remark. And again, BTW, I don't like either Lott or Thurmond. If the left wants to play this game, it's time the Republicans play the same game the same way. How about Gore - who was a VP, explaining why his daddy voted against civil rights? How about Jesse Jackson resigning from his self appointed national PC watch since he made those remarks about Hymie town. Now those actions and words can't be mistaken.

Actually, you are sooo wrong. Gore's dad voted repeatedly against the civil rights act. He may have eventually voted FOR the act, but it's been well documented that he voted against civil rights for years in the Senate.

That is incorrect--Gore Sr. was up for re-election in 1964 and voted against the Civil Rights Act. The next year, after he had won re-election, he voted in favor of the Voting Rights Act. He was indeed one of the few Southern politicians who refused to sign the Southern Manifesto.

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.

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.

Those were all democrats. Republican have higher standards.