He was being nice to Strom. Why don't you ask for clarification from Lott before ASSUMING what he meant? George Bush has praised Lott in the past. Can we assume that George Bush is a racist?
That's motive, Hank, not meaning. Take Trent out of the equation, and read the words. What do they MEAN to you?
How is praising his segregationist run for President as a Democrat - a platform AND a party Strom is supposed to have renounced - "being nice"?
Lott tried to offer clarification, but he lied. So I still don't know what he meant.
George Bush has praised Lott in the past. Can we assume that George Bush is a racist?
C'mon, Hank, you can do better than that. The only possible analogy along those lines would be like George Bush specifically praising Trent Lott for trying to keep his frat house segregated - praise tied to a specific event, not an entire career - and, even then, a frat house as a private organization has the right to do so. In 1948, however, the issue was state-enforced segregation and denial of due process to blacks.
Oh, and BTW, I have never called Lott a bigot - I think he's an idiot who didn't think through what he said. But that doesn't change the fact that what he said was racially loaded. Motive versus meaning.
That is exactly right, Appy. If Lott is asked to step down or removed it is the same as saying that he is a racist and if he is a racist then certainly everybody that has supporte him is too. The first thing that ought to be looked at is exactly who voted for him to be Majority Leader in the first place. Just a buncha closet Klansmen I'm sure.
Uhh.... I believe Lott offered up "clarifications" of what he meant on several occasions. George Will unsnarled Lott's "clarifications" yesterday with this from his column, I'll c/p from that:
"Major apology No. 2 was issued on Sean Hannity's radio show, in an attempt to recover from major apology No. 1, in which Lott said he had used "a poor choice of words" about "discarded policies." On the Hannity show Lott said he meant that Thurmond was the proper presidential timber in 1948 because of Thurmond's stance on national defense.But by 1948 -- the Berlin airlift, the Truman Doctrine of aid to Greece and Turkey and other nations menaced by communism -- Truman's Cold War defense stance was robust. And the platform of the States' Rights Democratic Party, aka Dixiecrats, under whose banner Thurmond ran, did not mention defense -- other than the defense of the South against what Thurmond called the "social intermingling of the races."
http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/national/will/story/5622215p-6598349c.html