Enter Bush: The President Speaks (Frum Says Lott's Out Of There)

David Frum's Diary (NRO blog) ^ | December 13, 2002 | David Frum

[NonZeroSum]

Frum's right.

We need to recognize this as a golden opportunity to both get rid of Lott, and to repudiate the charges that conservatism equals racism.

[ConservativeMan55]

I say that Lott should step down as leader, not because of the comments, but because of the job he's been doing, and replace him with Don Nickles!!!
Lott needs to remain a Senator though!

[Huck]

I'm with the President.

[xkaydet65]

Absolutely! As I said on a post yesterday the fight for equal opportunity and equal protection, without the nefarious set asides and quotas, is a fight conservatives must lead.

[Alberta's Child]

Bush sees himself as the first Republican president in a generation to campaign explictly for black votes – a campaign compromised by Lott’s indiscretion.

Bush got all of 9% of the black vote in 2000, which is particularly pathetic when you realize that even a KKK grand wizard would have gotten about 5%.

There is absolutely no sense in reaching out to voters who are incapable of independent thought and who continuously toe the Democratic Party line regardless of which candidates are involved.

[CatoRenasci]

My own guess is that the kind of talk Lott engaged in is much more likely to be acceptable at a Connecticut country club than it would be at the suburban evangelical churches in which the Republican base is found.

Yup, I've heard pretty clearly racist remarks (about blacks, hispanics and Jews, variously) at several clubs here in Connecticut. Some of the speakers are good liberals. Some are Jews talking about blacks and hispanics. Some are WASPs talking about Jews and other 'ethnics'. All are despicable. I'm proud that one of my own clubs, in the late '50s, welcomed a prominent Jewish athlete when he had been blackballed (by a man I later knew slighly in business) from another prominent club in our sport.

[ambrose]

There is absolutely no sense in reaching out to voters who are incapable of independent thought and who continuously toe the Democratic Party line regardless of which candidates are involved.

It isn't about getting them to vote Republican. It is about placating white suburban women and keeping down the overall black turnout.

[Cyber Liberty]

When it comes to minority outreach for the party, Bush has no peers. He expanded the Republican share of minority voters quite a bit in his Texas re-election bid, without the usual giving away of the store that liberals demand.

He should be furious with Neville Lott for undoing all his efforts, and I am sure that he is.

[kipj]

Is there a place left on the web that has a live audio feed of Rush? I was using the station in Chicago but they quit the feed. Thanks.

[Miss Marple]

First comment I have seen that Racicot is NOT meeting with Sharpton.

[Alberta's Child]

I can understand that -- but that is not what the author said in Item #2 on his list of reasons why Bush is unhappy with Lott.

[inkling]

Bush got all of 9% of the black vote in 2000, which is particularly pathetic when you realize that even a KKK grand wizard would have gotten about 5%.

There is absolutely no sense in reaching out to voters who are incapable of independent thought and who continuously toe the Democratic Party line regardless of which candidates are involved.

It's not just minority voters we will lose because of Lott. White voters will not support what they consider to be a racist party. If I as a rabid conservative Republican think that Lott makes us look racist, what do you think the middle-of-the-road folks who decide elections think of Lott and the GOP?

Lott has already badly bloodied the party. He has to go NOW.

[My2Cents]

I think all four of Frum's optional explanations are correct. It's one thing, as a Republican, to be beaten about the head unjustly by the racebaiters in the Democrat Party; it's quite another thing to hand the racebaiters a club with which to do more beating. If Lott can't see this, or figure it out, he's not only spineless, he's braindead.

[lavrenti]

There are two more reasons why Lott has to go: He is (1) inept and (2) a coward.

The way he's handled this situation shows why he was never fit than to be Bob Dole's, and later Tom Daschle's coffee-and-doughnut boy.

However, at this stage of this neo-con and Drudge-induced crisis it all boils down to one slogan: "Thurmond never lynched anyone, but Robert Byrd belonged to an organization that did."

That'll take care of the messy edges of this scandal forthwith.

[Wait4Truth]

I sure do agree with you. If I was President Bush, I would be livid at Lott. Since he first ran for Governor of Texas, he has been reaching out to minorities. In his re-election bid, he got 27% of the Black vote and over 50% of the Latino vote. He won in a 69% landslide. He does not need this idiot to ruin everything. Lott did not make these stupid comments just once - he has made them more than once - in addition to some other stupid comments and actions. He does not need to leave the Senate but he most certainly needs to resign his leadership position. On top of everything else, he is an easy cave-in for Tom Daschle. He needs to be replaced by someone that can do the job and continue the outreach of the President. GWB really cares about the poor and addicted in this country...he always has. This is not merely a strategy for him. FRIST WOULD BE MUCH BETTER AND I hope it happens very soon.

[Pushi]

I'm with you.

[My2Cents]

You're absolutely right. My sentiments exactly. I sent a quick email to Jeff Jacoby yesterday in response to his excellent column on Lott, and I said that the Republican Party has NEVER been the party of segregation, and if it were to become such, it would lose me as a member.

[inkling]

However, at this stage of this neo-con and Drudge-induced crisis it all boils down to one slogan: "Thurmond never lynched anyone, but Robert Byrd belonged to an organization that did."

That'll take care of the messy edges of this scandal forthwith.

And that's why Lott can easily stay on as a senator, just not as leader. If Democrats, smelling blood in the water, try to further censure or oust Lott from the Senate, we can call for the heads of Byrd and Hollings.

[smiley]

Go to www.wjno.com

[headsonpikes]

That's right!