>Black Lawmakers Say Lott Apology Not Enough; NAACP Calls for Resignation

AP Breaking | 12-10-02 | Jim Abrams

[Lance Romance]

Black Lawmakers Say Lott Apology Not Enough; NAACP Calls for Resignation
By Jim Abrams Associated Press Writer
Published: Dec 10, 2002

WASHINGTON (AP) - Black lawmakers said Tuesday that Senate Republican leader Trent Lott did not go far enough in apologizing for remarks he made praising the 1948 presidential run of then-segregationist Strom Thurmond.

Democrats should not be too quick to drop the matter either, one black House Democrat said.

Separately, the NAACP said Lott, who will be Senate majority leader in the next Congress, should resign from his leadership position. "Hateful bigotry" has no place in Congress, the organization's president said.

"It sends a chilling message to all people," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., of the remarks Lott made last week at a birthday party for 100-year-old Thurmond, R-S.C., who is retiring after 48 years in the Senate.

"These are the kinds of words that tear this nation apart," said Cummings, who on Tuesday was elected chairman of the 39-member Congressional Black Caucus. "We are going to do something about it."

Lott said at the party that his state of Mississippi was proud to have voted for Thurmond in 1948, when Thurmond headed the states rights, anti-integration Dixiecrat ticket that captured 39 Southern electoral votes. "And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either," Lott said.

He apologized late Monday, saying, "A poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I apologize to anyone who was offended by my statement."

Asked about the situation on Tuesday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said of Lott, "He has apologized for his statement and the president understands that that is the final word from Senator Lott."

Fleischer said President Bush thinks Americans should take pride in the "tremendous strides and changes and improvements" that have been made in race relations since 1948. "We were a nation that needed to change," the spokesman said.

Lott was also sharply criticized Tuesday by Ken Connor, president of the conservative Family Research Council. "Senator Lott's ill-considered remarks will serve only to reinforce the false stereotype that white conservatives are racists at heart," he said. "Republicans ought to ask themselves if they really want their party to continue to be represented by Trent Lott."

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, the outgoing head of the Black Caucus, said she called Lott Monday and he apologized to her, saying he was caught up in the moment and did not realize his remarks would be interpreted as they were. Asked if that was sufficient, Johnson said, "We're not finished in this caucus."

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., also said that Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle spoke too quickly on Monday when he said he accepted Lott's explanation that he hadn't meant his words to be so interpreted.

"This is a Democratic Party issue," Waters said. "It is not enough to simply defend or to explain these kinds of statements and then at election time talk about why black Americans should turn out in large numbers."

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, who will take over as House Democratic leader next month, said of Lott, "He can apologize all he wants. It doesn't remove the sentiment that escaped his mouth that day."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in a statement from its president Kweisi Mfume, said Lott should resign from his leadership post "to make way for another member of the Republican Party whose moral compass is pointed toward improving race relations and not dredging up this nation's poor, polarizing performance of the past."

Lott's comments, Mfume said, "are dangerously divisive and certainly unbefitting a man who is to hold such a highly esteemed leadership role."

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson last weekend also called for Lott's resignation as majority leader.

Lott's spokesman Ron Bonjean, asked about the latest criticisms, said Lott "made a sincere apology and it speaks for itself."

Cummings, a four-term congressman from Baltimore, defeated Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, founder of the Illinois Black Panthers in 1968 and a member of Congress for 10 years, in the vote to head the all-Democratic black caucus. Other caucus officers for the next session of Congress are Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, Corrine Brown of Florida, Danny Davis of Illinois and Barbara Lee of California.

---

[Torie]

Here is a snippet from the Southern Poverty Law Center, hardly impartial but whatever. The Washington Post article needs to be unearthed somehow:

Politicians and the CCC

Today, the council boasts of endorsements by past and present political leaders including Lott, Fordice and Barr, who was the keynote speaker at the semiannual council board meeting held last June; Sen. Jesse Helms (R.-N.C.); former Georgia Gov. Maddox, a staunch segregationist whom the CCC has honored with a "patriot of the century" award; former Rep. Rarick (R-La.); former Rep. Webb Franklin (R-Miss.); and more than 50 local politicians in eight states, including the 34 in the Mississippi state legislature.

Republican National Committeeman Buddy Witherspoon of South Carolina is a CCC member, according to The Washington Post, and GOP National Committeewoman Bettye Fine Collins of Alabama has spoken to the group and received a special award. So has former Alabama Gov. Guy Hunt. Alabama Judge Roy Moore, who stirred national debate by refusing to take down a display of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom, addressed the Council. Claire Bawcom, a vice president of the Tennessee Federation of Republican Women, writes a column for the Informer and regularly speaks at CCC meetings.

Many politicians, like Arkansas’ then-Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee, have walked away from the CCC after learning something of its ideology. Huckabee, today the governor of Arkansas, backed out of a 1994 speech to the CCC after learning that he would have shared the podium with white supremacist lawyer Kirk Lyons. Last year, Winston-Salem, N.C., Mayor Jack Cavanagh publicly apologized after speaking to the CCC, saying he was not a racist and had not known of the group’s views. In Washington, the influential Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which once allowed the CCC to co-host an annual meeting, has barred the CCC because, CPAC’s director said, "they are racists."

For his part, Barr, after being criticized in December for speaking to the CCC, told reporters that he disagreed with many of the group’s "ridiculous views."

Lott, similarly criticized in December, initially told The Washington Post that he had "no firsthand knowledge" of the CCC and was not a member. Informed that Cotterill and other CCC leaders had told the Intelligence Report that Lott was in fact a paid-up CCC member, Lott spokesman John Czwartacki said Lott "doesn’t consider himself" a member and "has no recollection" of ever paying dues. Czwartacki declined to say if Lott had been a member in the past, but he did insist that Lott "firmly rejects" many CCC views. Later, after a month of criticism, Lott issued a statement decrying "the racist view of this group." Publicly, Baum said, in effect, that if Lott didn’t consider himself a member then he wasn’t one. "He’s gotta do what he’s gotta do," Baum said of Lott’s denials.

In any event, Lott certainly had heard of the group.

In 1992, Lott gave a speech to 400 CCC supporters in Greenwood, Miss., at the group’s national board meeting. In 1994, when Lott’s hometown newspaper reported he was a CCC member, no one objected. In 1997, Lott hosted a private meeting in his Senate office with Baum, Lord and Dover, who together are the chief leaders of the CCC. Baum keeps a photo of that meeting in his office that is signed, "Best Wishes, Trent Lott." Lott’s uncle, former state senator and current Carroll County, Miss., CCC officer Arnie Watson, told The New York Times that Lott was, in fact, a CCC "honorary member."

"We’re a rather large organization in Mississippi," Lott’s home state, Baum said. "I would assume someone as astute as Mr. Lott would have a pretty good grasp of us."

According to the Informer, Lott concluded his 1992 Mississippi speech to the CCC with this: "The people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy. Let’s take it in the right direction and our children will be the beneficiaries!"

[jwalsh07]

Lott says he's not a member. He has stated on numerous occasions that he does not support the views of racists, separatists or segregationists. There is apparently no record of his ever having been a member of this organization.

He has been accused of writing a column for their newsletter but if you probe a bit deeper it turns out that the newsletter simply prints releases from his senate office. The releases are impossible to find on the internet, presumably because there is no there there.

He has spoken to that organization several times which is determinative of nothing.

Is Lott a southerner? Yes. Is he a racist? No.

I might add that the smear started during Clinton's impeachment by the party that disdains the politics of personal destruction. Ironic, no?

[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.

[CenterRight]

Edward Kennedy, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, drove his car off a bridge and killed his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. If his name hadn't been Kennedy, he would have gone to prison for manslaughter.

Daniel Inouye, a Democratic senator from Hawaii, reportedly raped a woman.

Joe Biden, a Democratic senator from Delaware, is a plagiarist.

Barney Frank, a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, had a gay prostitution ring in his basement.

Jim McDermott, a Democratic congressman from Washington state, passed a recording of a phone conversation (that had been made without the participants' knowledge) to a newspaper. One of the participants in the phone conversation was Newt Gingrich. McDermott's action was a felony under state law.

Hillary Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York, reportedly called a Jewish political advisor a "fu**ing Jew ba**ard." Her husband, Bill Clinton, repeatedly referred to the black vote as "the ni**er vote."

Jesse Jackson called Jews "Hymies" and New York City "Hymietown." Louis Farrakhan called Judaism a "gutter religion."

But let's go out and lynch Trent Lott.

[sauropod]

Find me a quote please.

[Adder]

While I am sure that Lott was referring to race, it is true it was never said. He could have been easily referring to the rise in federal power over states which was ALSO a main plank of the Dixiecrat Party with the Negro the ready focus.
Additionally, the Black Caucus said they would have a resolution and would develope options for Lott to follow, some "apology" that would satisfy THEM. [Personally, I don't care if they are satisfied or not...they don't apologize to me for their "hurtful" remarks].I suggest that at this point, Lott shut up and refuse to play their game. They have no other recourse. They want him to crawl to their meeting and roll over. I suggest that he walk in and tell them to shove it.
Now, does Lott have the spine? I sure hope so.

[hellinahandcart]

"David Schippers" + "Bush knew" yielded this on Google.

Don't have time to read everything, but I could not immediately find a quote more damning of Bush than of Clinton; the thrust of his remarks seems more anti FBI than anything else. It's the nutbar sites that seem to have drawn the particular conclusion that he was talking about Bush. Just look at some of those sites. Hoo boy. Bad company...

[Caipirabob]

I'm miffed he could be so careless, but I too don't believe he should resign from the Senate.

Still, we can't afford such divisive comments at this point in history. I can't imagine what he was thinking unless somehow Tom Daschle swapped his speech for one Daschle wrote (tin foil, anyone?) We cannot afford to have someone in a leadership position who could be so mindless. He has completely removed the focus off the enemy and caused our watchful eyes to turn in upon ourselves instead of those who are trying to kill us. We have far greater foes to be concerned with and should not carry the liability of having to babysit a grown man.

I am SO aggrevated with this guy...

[4CJ]

Well as I see it, Lott did the exact opposite of what he should have done. He shouldn't have apologized. He should have stayed the course, kept his mouth shut, and the issue would have gone away.

I agree. Furthermore, I understand the provisions countained within the 1st Amendment apply to all Americans - not just liberal/socialist/marxist Dims. If anyone, Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson and Farrakhan included, voice sentiments that are derogatory and/or racist, it's their choice. Almost everyone rants and raves about the faults of others, but overlook the "beam" in their own eye.

[Hobsonphile]

There's a difference between firing a leader because he is a racist and firing him because he's a political idiot. I don't think Lott is a racist, and I don't think we have to concede that he is in order to replace him. We only have to state that we want a leader who is more effective and more politically saavy.

Overall, I think we will do more damage to our cause getting defensive over this. Your camp dogmatically declares that we will never get the black vote anyway, so why bother. We will never get Jesse Jackson's vote. However, I think you are dead wrong about the rank-and-file. I worked in inner city Baltimore with former addicts, many of whom were black. I came across the occasional black radical, but the majority of the people I met had very common sense views- they wanted to work, they wanted drugs and crime out of their neighborhoods, and they believed in being responsible for their own destiny. You also underestimate the power of Christianity in this population- almost all of our employees were evangelicals. The reason we are not getting the black vote is because older Republicans have declared it hopeless and don't even bother to try, or, worse yet, they try to pander to the black vote by offering watered down donkeys.

[sneakypete]

"It sends a chilling message to all people," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., of the remarks Lott made last week at a birthday party for 100-year-old Thurmond, R-S.C., who is retiring after 48 years in the Senate.

Why chilling? You would think they would have stood up and cheered. After all,there is NOBODY that are bigger fans of segregation than politically-active blacks. That's the whole basis of the Black Caucaus,and the root holding the dirt that is affirmative-action together. How could you even have affirmative-action without segregation?

And this ain't even addressing the problems of hyprocisy which people like JJ,Sharpie,Quesey MF'er,and others have on display on a daily basis.

[sneakypete]

Said to say, but Lott will eventually be forced to step down.

Yup,it's a done deal. The only question remaining is who the DNC will allow the RNC to replace him with. I'm sure they are in negoiations with the RNC and the White House about that already. The one thing you can be sure about is that Bubba-2 and the RNC will cave,and will NOT appoint a new Majority leader who doesn't meet the Dims approval.

I've seen this tactic before from this racist group and in almost every case it works.

That's true,but they earn no special credit for this. The only reason they win is because the Republicans lack the balls to stand up to them and say "no". It's not real hard to win when your opponet never fights back,

They push for a bite and instead of being quiet the 'offending' group offers a compromise. Sooner or later the NAALCP gets its way

Of course,but don't blame the NAACP for doing what they can do. Put the blame were it belongs,on the people who allow them to win. The RNC.

[sneakypete]

We cannot—we dare not—let the Equal Protection Clause perpetuate racial supremacy.”

In other,more accurate words,this guy concludes that minorities ARE inferior to whites and can't compete,so we need to set the Constitutional rights to equal treatment under the law aside? Some law professor THIS guy is!

[sneakypete]

knowing we'll defend him against baseless charges leaving us stuck with a panty-waist dim-collusionist complete with a GOP blackeye?

And this would be a change in current conditions in what way?

[SerpentDove]

>>I and a lot of other people dont care what the F--k you think.<<

Got your little panties in a twist there, don't you? You really shouldn't be so thin-skinned. this is a forum, and grown-ups usually can appreciate that others don't always have to agree with them.

>>Lot has never been a racist,has never supported or voted for anything racist. If you have any thing that proves your aligations that he is racist post it on FR and we can debate it.<<

I challenge you to name one post in which I called Lott a Racist. Perhaps you need to brush up on your reading comprehension.

[SerpentDove]

(Repost/ Updated)

cksharks to SerpentDove:

>>I and a lot of other people dont care what the F--k you think.<<

Got your little panties in a twist there, don't you? You really shouldn't be so thin-skinned. this is a forum, and grown-ups usually can appreciate that others don't always have to agree with them.

>>Lot has never been a racist,has never supported or voted for anything racist. If you have any thing that proves your aligations that he is racist post it on FR and we can debate it.<<

I challenge you to name one post in which I called Lott a Racist. Perhaps you need to brush up on your reading comprehension.

BTW, if you want me to waste my time, I can dig up posts I wrote contemporaneously with this thread where I said I DOUBT Lott is a racist.

Your false statements about me are not appreciated, but you have your right to free speech.

Ciao

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>Some law professor THIS guy is!<<<

Maybe he deserves to be e-mailed?


Kim Forde-Mazrui bio:
http://www.law.virginia.edu/lawweb/lawweb2.nsf/pages/lev2calc?OpenDocument&Fr1=yyy/lawweb/faculty.nsf/DBN&Fr2=/home2002/frames/lf_about.htm

Professor of Law
Barron F. Black Research Professor
J.D., The University of Michigan Law School, 1993
A.B., University of Michigan, 1990

Kim Forde-Mazrui became a member of the faculty in 1996. He teaches courses in criminal law and constitutional law. His research interests include affirmative action; the relationship between integration, diversity, and cultural preservation; and race in the child placement process.

Forde-Mazrui is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where he received the Carl Gussin Memorial Prize for excellence in trial advocacy and the Henry M. Bates Memorial Scholarship, the highest award given to outstanding seniors. He was note editor of the Michigan Law Review and a member of Order of the Coif, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Golden Key National Honor Society.

During law school, Forde-Mazrui was a summer associate with Dykema Gossett in Detroit, Michigan, and was program director for the University of Michigan Office of Minority Affairs. After graduation, Forde-Mazrui clerked for Judge Cornelia G. Kennedy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and worked as an associate with Sidley & Austin in Washington, D.C.

[sneakypete]

Kim Forde-Mazrui became a member of the faculty in 1996. He teaches courses in criminal law and constitutional law. His research interests include affirmative action; the relationship between integration, diversity, and cultural preservation; and race in the child placement process.

Ok,this explains him. He's not only a Marxist,he is a affirmative action hack himself. Graduating with "honors" probably means he can read one of the "See spot run" Dick and Jane primers with only minor assistance on some of the bigger words.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Over 90% of a recent Harvard graduating class graduated "with honors". Meanwhile, over 90% of university professors nationwide are registered DEMOCRATS. For those who mimic their statist agenda, better greats seemingly await.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Please replace "greats" with "grades".