Jesse Jackson Calls Trent Lott a 'Confederate'on Thurmond Quote, Asks for Senate Resignation

Meet the Press-NBC ^ | Dec. 8, 2002 | Tim Russert

[ewing]

Tim Russert just said on the panel discussion to Robert Novak, Bill Safire and David Broder that Jesse Jackson had given him a statement calling Lott a 'Confederate' for his remarks supporting Strom Thurmond and requesting his resignation from the Senate as Incoming Majority Leader.

No details were given about possible protests by Jacksons Rainbow coalition on the controversy

[wasp69]

8) Slavery was ened by the Founder of the Republican Party - A. Lincoln...(not Jesse rent the mop Jackson)

Forgive me for disagreeing, but no he did not.

[aruanan]

Strom was actually the most progressive in the Senate on hiring black staff after the Civil Right bill passed.

In addition, it was the Republicans who were responsible for getting the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed over obstructionist Democrats.

[aruanan]

No details were given about possible protests by Jacksons Rainbow coalition on the controversy

And after it rains, there's a rainbow
And all of the colors are black

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I know he voted against the civil rights act. My point is that he was following the wishes of his constituents. I'm pretty sure quite a few people voted against it. I agree with you though if Algore brought his dad into the discussion.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

my friend, don't be a fool. In reality, the south was pure democrat then...now it's pure republican. things have changed.

[topher]

It is okay for the Democratic Party to have their
KKK Grand Dragon -- Senator Byrd of West Virginia --
where statues have been erected to honor Senator
Byrd?

[TBP]

These comments from the man who called New York "Hymietown." Jesse Jerkson is not only a racist, but a hypocrite as well.

[Theodore R.]

I think Lott has a good voting record, as someone else on the forum has already said. I do NOT think he is an effective majority leader, but the retiring Jesse Helms thinks Lott is a "great" leader. He may know something that I don't.

I also don't think Lott should be removed from the leadership for a silly comment at a birthday party. I think everyone has at one time or another said something silly that he regrets, and perhaps something silly at a birthday party. To remove Trent under these circumstances would fall into the PC of the hard left.

Trent is forced out over this, it would be like the 1830 Democrat birthday gathering for the late Thomas Jefferson. At that birthday party, the President Jackson (TN) challenged Vice President Calhoun (SC) over the status of the federal union. In time, Calhoun resigned the vice presidency and became a Jackson critic, but all within the Democrat party. So it would be hard to imagine that Thurmond's birthday party would be relegated to such importance as the first of the Jefferson-Jackson dinner.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Which U.S. Senator is a former member of the Ku Klux Klan?

Which U.S. Senator wasn't just a member of the KKK but was a "Kleagle" -- an official recruiter who signed up members for $10 a head?

Which U.S. Senator said he joined because it "offered excitement" and because the Klan was an "effective force" in "promoting traditional American values."

Which U.S. Senator wrote the following, three years after he claims to have ended his ties with the KKK: "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the Union."

Which U.S. Senator also wrote that he would never fight "with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

Which U.S. Senator later filibustered the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act -- supported by a majority of those "mean-spirited" Republicans -- for more than 14 hours.

Which U.S. Senator opposed the nominations of the Supreme Court's two black justices, liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas.

Which U.S. Senator recently warned on national television: "There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."

I'll give you a hint. It wasn't Strom Thurmond.

[CenterRight]

Here's a link to a one-hour video and audio recording of the C-SPAN broadcast of Thurmond's birthday celebration. It includes Lott's entire speech. I have in on my screen now and I'm reviewing it.

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.

[GOPcapitalist]

Trent Lott should explain himself or he should step down. What he said was vile and inexcusable and Bush should demand he step down if he won't go on his own. There's no excuse for what Trent Lott said.

Oh Please. Lott's only crime is poor wording combined with the stupidity evident in the fact that he did not anticipate the Jesse Jacksons of the world doing exactly what they are doing right now.

For anybody who saw that speech on Thurmond in context, it is clearly evident that Lott's comment was in reference to the country being better off if government hadn't grown into the monster it is today. Lott commented to the effect that Thurmond had spent a lifetime fighting against government growth, a context that has been COMPLETELY IGNORED by persons raising a stink about his speech. There is nothing "vile and inexcusable" about praising Thurmond for a career long fight against big government, which is clearly what Lott was doing. He said nothing even remotely endorsing segregation and for Jackson to suggest so is dishonesty at its worst...especially since this is the exact same Jesse Jackson who has yet to notice Robert "KKK" Byrd on his own side of the aisle.

[RooRoobird14]

I'm very disappointed with Lotts off-the-record remarks which he should have thought about more before he flapped his lips. But Action Jackson is trying to turn this into the moral equivalent of Bull Connor's behavior back in the 60's. Ridiculous.

JJ's hysteria over Lott's remarks may fire up the Lazy-Slobs-Who-Want-Reparations crowd, but it will also create sympathy for Lott (and actually for anyone who isn't an opportunistic racist like JJ is).

[xm177e2]

Puh-leeze. Truman was on record as being in favor of civil rights legislation, and Thurmond ran his campaign on one central issue--opposition to civil rights and desegregation.

[rambo316]

Yet, there is a former KKK member on the 'Rat side and neither Jerkson or the Communist News Network never talks about this little fact.

[SerpentDove]

>> I think the Majority Leader was referring to Strom hiring blacks in the Sentate before anyone else when he said' We would have been better off [in the 1960's race situations] with a leader like Strom<<

IF...I repeat...IF this is what he meant, why didn't he explain this? It certainly is an obscure reference to put in front of an audience.

That makes no sense.

???

[SerpentDove]

>>He's either a first-class bigot or he's really, really dumb. Either way, he deserves to go.>>

I agree.

[SerpentDove]

>>To remove Trent under these circumstances would fall into the PC of the hard left. <<

Either Lott is a segregationist or a witless buffoon. Neither one is what I want representing my party.

BTW-- If Lott would explain his remarks, that might be a step in the right direction.

[TBP]

It wasn't really a bad thing. In that election you had Harry Truman, anti-Commuinist but otherwise as liberal as the day is long; Tom Dewey, who was Rockefeller before Rockefeller; Henry Agarn Wallace, who would have been a Communist if he had been honest with himself (and whose running mate actually WAS a Communist); and Thurmond, the only candidate in the race who was taking a small government, states'rights position, opposing the Federalization of everything. I believe that is the correct position constitutionally and as a matter of philosophy.

If Thurmond had somehow been elected, we would most likely have a good bit less Federal government today and a lower tax burden, which would be a good thing.

And Jackson and Sharptongue are hardly the people who have any moral authority to go after anyone. Lott should remind himself that those who cry racism all the time are usually the biggest racists. I would say so, but Trent doesn't have enough spine to do it.

[kcar]

Wish I could do an animated walking figurine of Jesse the Racial Racketeer. He would walk over here to a microphone -then see a camera and walk over there, all the while chanting: Racism - racism - racism - racism - racism -racism-racism. Roll of bugeyes. Racism, racism...etc.