Posted on 12/10/2002 6:58:42 PM PST by walrus954
After a fiery speech by Thurmond at a Mississippi campaign rally for Ronald Reagan in November 1980, Lott, then a congressman, told a crowd in Jackson: "You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today."
More to follow...
GET OVER CLINTON, WILL YA?
Some of us are trying to forget about the SOB, and you keep dredging him up like the Frankenstein monster.
He'd die, but you just won't let him!
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/11/politics/11LOTT.html?pagewanted=print&position=topLott Faces Growing Attacks Over Praise for Thurmond
By CARL HULSE - December 11, 2002WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 — Trent Lott, the Republican Senate leader who faces mounting criticism for his comment last week that the nation would have been better off had Strom Thurmond been elected president in 1948, expressed a nearly identical sentiment two decades ago.
After a fiery speech by Mr. Thurmond at a campaign rally in Mississippi for Ronald Reagan in November 1980, Mr. Lott, then a congressman, told a crowd in Jackson, "You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today."
Last week, in remarks he later characterized as spontaneous and a poor choice of words, Mr. Lott repeated his opinion about Mr. Thurmond, who ran for president on a Dixiecrat platform opposing "social intermingling of the races."
At the party for Mr. Thurmond's 100th birthday, Mr. Lott said: "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 followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."
On Monday, Mr. Lott, the incoming Senate majority leader, apologized for those remarks and insisted he was not giving support for the segregationist stand Mr. Thurmond took in his 1948 campaign.
But the senator from Mississippi was attacked today with fresh complaints about his comments, as well as calls to step aside as Republican leader. Even some conservatives suggested that Mr. Lott had become a detriment to the Republican Party.
The White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, found himself having to defend Mr. Lott, saying President Bush has "confidence in him as the Republican leader, unquestionably."
The fact that Mr. Lott uttered similar comments in 1980 threatened to intensify the controversy. The quotation was in a report on Nov. 3, 1980, in The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson and was cited in the introduction of a dissertation by a historian, Joseph Crespino, who is writing a book on civil rights and political culture in Mississippi.
A spokesman for Mr. Lott, Ron Bonjean, said the remarks at the 1980 rally did not pertain to race but were made after Mr. Thurmond, then a top draw on the Republican circuit, had complained mightily about President Jimmy Carter, the national debt and federal meddling in state matters.
"We want that federal government to keep their filthy hands off the rights of the states," Mr. Thurmond was quoted as saying.
Mr. Bonjean, when shown the article, said, "Clearly, Senator Lott was praising the policies of Thurmond and Reagan, of smaller government and reducing the federal deficit."
He noted that a campaign rally has a similar celebratory feeling as the party last week.
Even without knowing of the earlier quotation, critics of Mr. Lott called on him to quit his post, saying this was not his first misstep. They recalled that he appeared in the 90's before the Council of Conservative Citizens, a group whose leaders have expressed extremist racial views.
"If Senator Lott's remarks last week were an isolated incident, we would be willing to accept his apology as truly genuine," said a statement by Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "His record, however, speaks far more loudly than his words alone."
Senator Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader who on Monday said that he accepted Mr. Lott's explanation for the birthday party statement, today called Mr. Lott's words "offensive to those who believe in freedom and equality in America."
Much of the criticism came from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which met to select new officers.
"I can tell you I'm very concerned and very upset that anybody that would issue such a statement would be in the leadership of this nation or the Senate," said Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, who was elected chairman.
The N.A.A.C.P. called for Mr. Lott to step aside as majority leader. Kweisi Mfume, the former congressman who heads the group, called the remarks the "kind of callous, calculated, hateful bigotry that has no place in the halls of this Congress."
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the new House Democratic leader, said: "He can apologize all he wants. It doesn't remove the sentiments that escaped his mouth that day at the party."
Some conservatives, who have had disputes with Mr. Lott, said his statements would feed the impression among some minorities that Republicans are intolerant. The president of the Family Research Council, Kenneth Conner, said Mr. Lott's remarks had done considerable damage.
Besides the White House, other Republicans went to Mr. Lott's defense, including Representative J. C. Watts of Oklahoma, the lone black Republican in Congress. Mr. Watts, who was in the leadership before retiring this year, said he did not believe that Mr. Lott needed to relinquish his position. "We should not trivialize the issue of race for political gain," he said.
Mr. Crespino, a fellow at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., who had the Clarion-Ledger article as part of his research, said he included Mr. Lott's comments in the introduction to his dissertation for their "shock value.
"I couldn't believe he said it in 1980, let alone 2002," he said. "These kinds of appeals to the racist right have been the G.O.P.'s dirty little secret for years."
Yep, once again we make shot in the foot a fatal wound. It is incredible.
He said if because he wasn't trying to sound like a racist .. and if there were people that felt that way then he apologized.
Let me give you an example .. during the last Freepathon I accidently posted a donation pledge on a thread that I shouldn't have .. I did it because I didn't think and pay attention to the title of the thread .. I made a mistake
I was called on it .. and I said to the person that if I had offended them I was sorry because it was not my intention and guess what .. that person accepted my apology and didn't ask for me to be banned
If he said it now would you believe him?
You sound like one of these trenchant Lott-haters, too.
How's this?
Who's "we"? I ain't moving forward with somebody who stands with a bunch of race pimps.
Uh, that would be YOU.
Close. The Conservative Citizens Council claims that they aren't racial supremacists though. They are racial separatists. Lott was a liar about being involved with them though. He spoke at several of their meetings, hosted them when they had a function in Washington, and his uncle flat out called him a liar, when Trent said he didn't know what their agenda was.
No they arent, they are looking for a way to make us look bad and Tret Lott and hig big stupid mouth is giving them all the ammo to do it.
Lott is a complete moron and a worthless leader, the Republican party should cut their losses and dump him. But of course they wont because we Republicans have a terrific history of shooting ourselves in the foot.
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