Posted on 12/07/2002 6:39:49 AM PST by BillCompton
chatterbox
Blurted Out Conviction of the Week: Trent Lott
What's a little segregationism among friends?
By Timothy Noah
Posted Friday, December 6, 2002, at 1:54 PM PT
"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 of followed our lead we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."
âTrent Lott at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party, as reported Dec. 6 in ABC News' political Weblog, The Note. To watch a video of the festivities, click here.
"I want to tell you, ladies and gentleman, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the southern people to break down segregation and admit the Nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches."
 âStrom Thurmond, then-governor of South Carolina, in a speech from his 1948 "Dixiecrat" presidential campaign. To hear an audio clip, click here.
Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/?id=2075151
http://www.c-span.org/politics/
The link to the Javascript is at about the center of the C-SPAN page. I'll transcribe the remarks by Lott, preceding his "all these problems" statement. There is no printed transcript on the Internet that I can find, at least not yet.
Feel free to click on the link above, download the 1-hour recording and follow along with me. If you're following along with me, fast-forward to exactly halfway through the recording. That is where Lott's speech starts.
Dole introduced Lott by mentioning that when Strom Thurmond was landing by glider in Normandy on June 6, 1944 Trent Lott was only three years old. http://www.c-span.org/politics/
Verbatim transcript of the beginning of Trent Lott's speech:
Well thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you my good friend and my predecessor, my hero, Bob Dole, for that introduction, that very brief introduction I might add [Laughter] But for Senator Strom Thurmond's family and friends and admirers all, it's a great pleasure for me to be here with you today, and I know that you're enjoying every minute of this. And I knew that the previous remarks would be just as they were. I mean, after all, Bob Dole received the Republican nomination and dang near was elected President of the United States telling Strom Thurmond jokes. [Laughter] If he'd just gotten himself some new material there toward the end he would have done it. [Laughter] I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for President we voted for him. [Laughter] We're proud of it. [More laughter] And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either.
HE WAS JOKING, PEOPLE.
The quotation that has been bandied about as so-called "proof" of Lott's "racism" was clearly told for laughs. It was at the beginning of the speech, after Dole told a few Strom Thurmond jokes. Then Lott stood up and said that in 1996, Dole was nominated for President "and dang near was elected President of the United States telling Strom Thurmond jokes."
Then came the quotation that everyone is bleating about, and it got a few laughs, exactly as Lott had clearly intended. Then came more jokes, including one about how "the Capitol froze over" inserted in place of "hell freezes over," and a reference to Dole's Pepsi commercial with Britney Spears.
We've thrown plenty of stones at Byrd over the years. However, Byrd's actions in no way should excuse Lott's idiotic statements. I would hope that, unlike the other side, we are above trying to defend someone by playing the moral equivalence game.
Lott is perfectly free to make these comments. However, the people in turn are perfectly free to say they do not think he should be majority leader, and his fellow GOP Senators are free to act on it. Lott's freedom of speech would only be infringed if he were being threatened with jail for making these statements (i.e., hate-crimes legislation).
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