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.
She will never be President. Hillary will grow old and die in her vain ambitions. And she will be forgotten.
You haven't a say in the matter; the Senate GOP has. What are you going to do...hold your breathe, until Trent vacates the SML post, write endless, inane posts on FR, call your Senators ?
What if Lott does renounce the SML ? You and I aren't guarenteed his replacem,ent will be any better, nor that the knoves aren't already sharpened and waiting for the next " victim ."
And look where it got them.
I know what you're saying, but I think reactions across the board, pro and con, are way beyond any Democrat manipulations.
I do agree that some of the Machiavellians on the other side wouldn't mind seeing Lott hang around, but I think most of the Republicans defending him are sincere, but reacting instinctively, rather than thinking it through.
I want to say this...we conservatives tried to have Lott removed...and we're proud of it...and if the rest of the party had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years...
ME TOO. Don't leave me out. What's more, although I don't know, I think Lott probably DOES harbor a tacit nostalgia for segregation, or toleration of segregationists. His statement, IMHO, was just too damn bizarre on any other interpretation. But it's not just my humble opinion, now is it?
Go back and watch the tape again. Notice that people did laugh indulgently when Lott noted that Mississippi voted for Thurman, but the room became dead quiet when Lott went on to make the next claim about the "problems" we would have avoided if the rest of the country had done likewise. Every damn person in that room, liberal and conservative, knew immediately that Lott had stepped over a line, and they knew exactly what it was that line marked off. You expect me to believe that Lott was the only person in that room who didn't understand? I don't believe it; and if I did, it would only convince me of Lott's intolerable stupidity.
Where were the outraged Dems and GOP " pundits ", when Teddy Kennedy KILLED his probably pregnant girlfriend ? Where were " they ", when Byrd was the SML ? Where were "they " , when Sharpton caused the death of a white man and injury / death of that store owner's employees ? Where were " they, when Sharpton lied and lied and lied and harassed Steven Pagonis, with the fraud of Tawana Brawley ? Where are " they " , now, now that Al claims he's going to run for president ? Where were " they " when Clinton & Co. rented out the Lincoln bedroom, sent algore to the Buddist Temple, and there were attack adds claiming that then Governor Bush was killing James Byrd a second time ? WHERE WERE / ARE THE DEMS, THE PUNDITS, AND THE MINDLESS, EMOTIONAL FREEPERS ( trying to prove just how PC they are )WHEN THIS PROPAGANDA MACHINE WAS SPEARING SO MANY OTHERS ? S-I-L-E-N-T ; that's where ! There wasn't one thread, on FR, condemning what Trent Lott said, at the B Day party, the day he said it !
How do you feel about the last 50 years of "progress"?
It took a week’s “analysis” of one sentence to divine what he "really" meant.
How do you feel? Why the quotes around "progress?"
Are you implying that the progress since desegregation is illusory?
Were blacks better off under segregation?
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.