Posted on 12/14/2002 10:47:02 AM PST by Sabertooth
Once again, in his own indelible words, the Republicans' Senate Majority Leader-elect:
"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."
~Trent Lott - December, 2002
When Strom Thurmond ran for President, he was a segregationist Dixiecrat spurred into revolt against the Democrats by Hubert Humphrey's Civil Rights plank in the '48 Democratic Party platform. Mississippi was one of four segregationist Southern States that voted for Thurmond. Segregation was the purpose and limited appeal of the Dixiecrats. It was the banner under which they marched.
The plainest sense of Lott's words are that he approves of the above.
Even though I don't believe that's what Lott meant, nor that he's a racist, that fact is inescapable. It takes backpedaling and damage control to escape the plain meaning of what Lott said and explain what's really in his heart. It's disingenuous to suggest otherwise.
The only way to for Trent Lott to address Thurmond's '48 campaign would have been to chart how far the retiring senior Senator from South Carolina has traveled in the last 54 years, and to use him as a metaphor to further illustrate how far the South and America have come. Had he done this, Lott could have simultaneously honored the Centenarian Senator and reiterated that Republicans, like the South and like America, have learned the errors of racism and segregation, and have long since embarked on a better path.
That Lott could not grasp this after decades in Washington is striking, particularly since this isn't the first time he's failed to navigate this reef. Speaking after a Thurmond speech for Ronald Reagan in 1980, then-Congressman Lott told the crowd: ""You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today."
Now, the Democrats are all over the opportunity Lott has injudiciously provided to them. That it seems unfair is irrelevant. He left himself open for the sucker punch and got pounded. He's only made matters worse with his tepid series of apologies: too little, too Lott. He is finished as a Senate Majority Leader of even mediocre effectiveness. It's time to cut our losses.
President Bush needs to invite Lott to the ranch in Crawford, and offer him a more artful and diplomatic rendering of the following:
"Senator, with your ill-advised remarks you've brought turmoil and embarrassment on yourself, the party, and the country. You've served all well in the past and I thank you for that service from the bottom of my heart. Unfortunately, the events of the past few weeks call for a reassessment of the nature of your future service. The horses have left the barn, but there does remain an open path for you, a path that is both honorable and humbling: step aside as Majority Leader and continue to serve in the Senate.
I understand the sacrifice my request places on you, and sympathize with it's burden, but our nation and our agenda are in peril.
I need you, and I'm asking you as you President to do this for the good of America."
To see to it that a buffoon who's been politically crippled by his own mouth doesn't further damage the Republicans' possession of the Executive Branch, and both chambers of the Legislative Branch, which they control simultaneously for the first time in my lifetime.
Am I being used by the Rats. I havent even listened to them complain. I heard the news report, then listen and read what he said and thought what an idiot. Then four days later he sends out his press guy to say if anyone misunderstand his remarks it was their fault. A week after his remarks he finally gets close to a real apology but he still cant say he was wrong. Barf. As inexcusable as the comments were he could have gotten out of this unscathed if he could have made a personal heart felt apology the next day. But no. Could not do it. Now we all suffer the consequences.
Huh??? ..
There is no slippery slope we have already slid to the bottom. The racial and group identity strategy is the only thing the democrats have. It works for them because their constituencies benefit from keep the racial flames burning. It will keep working for them as long as anyone that challenges them in any way can be professionally destroyed with a slip of the tongue. This is 2002 not 1948 and the racial situation is worse than ever. Yes blacks have unfettered ballot access and they use it almost exclusively to keep the racial fire alive and well.
Oh yes!
You get it!
I think we can start by pointing out that there is NO White Congressional Caucus.
Racism comes in many colors.
The occasion is the signing of the Spence / Warner Defense Spending Bill in October of 2000, and the remark--which is made by Lott to a woman standing behind Senator Thurmond, who is himself in the process of signing the bill--is NOT directed to the senator himself, but is offered as an aside (furthermore, this event was in no way intended as a tribute to Thurmond, as the birthday celebration was, and thus seems not to have been inspired directly by any attempt to please Mr. Thurmond w/o any actual endorsement of Thurmond's Dixiecrat platform, as Lott has claimed the birthday tribute was). The remark is exactly as follows, and though spoken off-camera, is quite audible: "Yes...he should have been elected in 1947...or 1948, it was".)
If this tape actually does exist....
I haven't seen such ability. When that has happened it is met with overwhelming cries of racism and quickly abandoned. To be branded "racist" in public life is a capital offence.
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