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Who doesn't have "racial skeletons

Let me clarify. Many people do have racial skeletons. Strom Thurmond did, but he was able to successfully put them aside. Trent Lott is tone-deaf. If he were the kind of Leader that Republicans need, he could have put this thing down easily. He only made things worse every time he opened his mouth.

Someone with racial issues in their past will not be brought down by them, and I don’t think it would be fair to do so. Someone with racial issues in their past, who cannot articulate how they have grown since, is a dead duck.

Lott is history.

Seems to me I read that when he was in college Lott did nothing to protest his fraternity's (Sigma Nu?) policies on race. I was in college back in the early 60's--and some "recruiters" for the sorority I had joined made some really IGNORANT comments concerning allowing "Jews and Negroes" to join. The comments were--paraphrasing--"we must stop the cancer from spreading". My "soror" and I sat there--and after a few seconds we looked at each other and basically said "we're outta here!!!" And we--I can't even remember the right word--maybe de-activiated??--but we left that sorority then and there. We weren't "activists"--but like a lot of "white folk" back then we could not for the life of us figure out why some people had to look down on other people for the color of their skin or the place where they were born or anything they had absolutley no choice in.

We were also--being young--very idealistic--and Democrats! But, as you point out--people can mend their ways--and now as a Conservative, who respects the hell out of someone like Clarence Thomas--I just cannot overlook Lott's remarks. They stem not from stupidity--but ignorance! The same kind of ignorance those sorority "sisters" voiced. And that ignorance --and all the "isms" it creates--must not be IGNORED. It must be faced and fought--and hopefully this time--defeated!

"Let me clarify. Many people do have racial skeletons. Strom Thurmond did, but he was able to successfully put them aside. Trent Lott is tone-deaf. If he were the kind of Leader that Republicans need, he could have put this thing down easily. He only made things worse every time he opened his mouth."

Agreed. With help from his own ineptitude, Lott is now d@mned as a racist with an even more weakened position as Senate majority leader if he stays, and d@mned as a proven prima donna if he leaves.

IMO, he's not getting ousted (the senate elects majority leaders from the sr senator of the majority party not serving in any other position, such as President of the Senate, or pro tempore)

If we start ignoring this mess, the media will stop ranting because no one is listening, and opportunistic politicos will have no platform on which to elevate themselves. He'll stay where he is, leaving the Republican party with an even more weakened majority "leader"...and the Democrats SHOULD be happy...IF as I have stated all along, this isn't a side ploy to get at the president and make him another "one termer" like so many Dems and third partyists are so droolingly hopeful for.