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.
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....