Posted on 12/15/2002 10:33:55 PM PST by kattracks
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Trent Lott, reeling from poor strategic handling of an unanticipated crisis, on Thursday afternoon sustained a potentially mortal cut from George W. Bush. Lott's inner circle was stunned, not by the president's harsh criticism, but by what was not said. He did not "put a cap" on the feeding frenzy, failing to commend Lott for service to country and party.
That failure constituted a conscious decision by President Bush. He was determined to avoid a debate over whether Lott should resign as Senate leader. By saying nothing good about Lott, Bush was feeding the furor. The president's aides are well aware of this, but contend they can do nothing about it. Consequently, Lott's leadership remains in jeopardy.
This is a classic case of Republicans eating their own. Democrats gather around disgraced colleagues, most famously Bill Clinton, but also Sen. Robert Byrd, the Senate's senior Democrat. Unlike Lott, Byrd used overtly racist language, but got away with it. It was typically Republican that the president did not telephone his Senate leader until he had spoken to a predominantly black audience in Philadelphia one week after Lott's infamous remarks. Jack Kemp, Lott's longtime political ally, assailed him without warning. These attacks seemed prompted by criticism of Lott rather than what Lott said.
After Bush's speech, a national GOP political operative said Lott had one week to stop the bleeding. "Less than that," one of the senator's aides told me. Once the president spoke, Lott decided to hold his Pascagoula, Miss., press conference Friday night, in which he pleaded for "forbearance and forgiveness." Although stunned by Kemp's comments, Lott took his old friend's advice to meet soon with blacks.
At first, prominent Republicans did not see Lott in serious trouble with his declaration at Thurmond's 100th birthday celebration that the country would have been better off had he been elected president on the 1948 segregationist ticket. When Democratic attacks began, Lott was advised by Republican counselors the storm would soon blow over.
Lott did not see the peril because of what he really meant. While Thurmond is a geriatric miracle, it has been a long time since anybody engaged him in serious political discussion. Typically, Thurmond would rave about the beauty of Lott's wife, Tricia, and Lott would caution him not to "steal her."
Another set piece dialogue had Lott -- tongue-in-cheek -- wishing that Thurmond had been elected in 1948. The birthday party comments were previewed dozens of times by Lott in private encounters with Thurmond. The birthday audience's applause suggests it saw Lott was just kidding the centenarian. Turning a private joke into a public joke, however, produced a train wreck.
The Congressional Black Caucus and the Rev. Jesse Jackson instantly seized on Lott's remarks to play the race card. Prominent Democrats were slow on the pickup. Senate Democratic Leader Thomas Daschle talked to Lott Monday morning, Dec. 9, and said "I accept" Lott's explanation, adding: "There are a lot of times when he and I go to the microphone and would like to say things we meant to say differently." That afternoon, a Black Caucus member who had worked with Lott -- Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia delegate -- said on MSNBC: "I've never seen any scintilla of racism in him."
That night on CNN, Jackson called Daschle "weak," and Daschle two days later demanded "a fuller explanation and apology" from Lott. Further scrutiny of Lott yielded the unsurprising revelation that he opposed racial integration as an Ole Miss fraternity boy in 1962. That overlooks the Deep South's remarkable transformation. While nearly all white politicians were segregationists then, none is today -- including Trent Lott.
Lott was late in recognizing the feeding frenzy. His incremental responses were insufficient, aggravated by phoning radio and television programs instead of appearing on camera.
Conservative activists and publications have joined the demand that Lott resign. Democrats played the race card, and conservatives responded on cue. It is now up to the Senate Republican Conference whether the Black Caucus and the news media shall pick the Senate Republican leader. George W. Bush is saying he has no dog in this fight.
©2002 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
The Republican party has "suffered undeservedly over this". Lott is the one who made the stupid remarks.
Staffs have also been known to fib. Lott is understandably very angry about this. What likely pisses him off most, is the fact the his repuplican friends ran like rabitts!
I found this fact disgusting and very telling. I know the rats now see that they can do this to anyone!
And they will! You can take that to the bank!
I'm not gonna hold too much fire to the Senate for not pushing that too hard. Keep in mind you can't get a President thrown out with just 51 votes. Do you really really think that enough Democrats would have come over to vote Clinton out of office? The Republicans knew that this was a lost cause in the Senate. I think it was good enough that they tagged Clinton with the Impeachment label.
Look at it this way. If by some reason they would have gotten Clinton out, or if he would have resigned, then Gore would have been President, and then Bush more than likely would not have been elected.
Right. The entire world is upside down. The media, the message boards, Talk Radio and the political world is just all involved in this incredible plot to pretend Trent Lott made offensive racist comments....but none of it is true.
It's all just crap people made up. Those quotes from Trent Lott that keep getting played, are fabrications.
These posts defending Lott are so feeble.
If you applied this same principle about some saying something nice about someone else who had a view 50 years ago that has since changed, who could you not chastise.
But we have gone far beyond just chastisement here in this case.
How in the hell can anyone justify this!!!!!!!!!
This is the most stupid political hack job that I have ever seen in my 35 years of political awareness! The dumbest, most jackass resentment party that I have ever witnessed.
There is absolutely no basis for this whatsoever!
You just made my case. You don't know if he is a racist but if that is what it takes to get rid of him then why not? That is the Clitonian view of morality.
LOL! Well someone must be a racist?
Who is it?Is it Strom?
Gee! I did not know he was a racist! What the hell are we doing with a big bad racist in the Senate and a member of the republican party to boot! There must have been thousands of complaints and articles about this racist!
Suppose you post a few! Huh?
There is absolutely no basis for this whatsoever!
Regardless of whether you see a basis for it or not...the movement to remove Lott as Majority Leader is a reality.
You can argue all you want...but the statements Lott made are reaping some very real consequenses.
Give up these anemic defenses of Lott. You're going to have to adjust to the real world sooner or later.
Lott has more character in his behavior and his work in the Senate than any ten of them combined.
Apparently you have none or you would recognize it immediately.
Funny, I've read the boards, OpEds and opinion columns for days on end....but nothing Hillary Clinton or James Carville has said on the issue. They are irrelevant.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.