Here is my question: WHO has been advising him? I didn't think his comments were more than a faux pas UNTIL someone (James Carville?) made a point of feeding them to Tim Russert. Then all holy hell broke loose. So who told him to ignore it as it was "no big deal?" Who told him to go on talk radio, rather than hold a press conference? Who told him to go on BET and grovel? Dick Morris has been his political adviser for a long time...that is the culprit, IMHO.
Lott failed to understand that he needed to stop the snowball from rolling downhill. He avoided a national press conference, gave very weak statements, and apparently "forgot" to condemn segragation on Larry King Live, a specific request from the President, which is why the President came out so strongly on Thursday.
I do not want to tar someone with a racist label. I am sick of this whole incident.
However, Lott's appearance tonight (and I didn't see it...I am waiting for the re-run) seems to have betrayed the entire Republican agenda.
I have a great deal of compassion for Senator Lott, who is perhaps an anachronism and just doesn't understand the problem he created. However, the question is not what I think, but whether or not he has the confidence of the Republican senators and also whether he will be able to get legislation through the senate. The rats have effectively set up a counter argument to the obstruction charge: they can claim the moral high ground in protesting Lott's "racism."
Yes, I know they are hypocrites, but that is not the point; they are going to use this as an excuse and it will give them cover.
This is the damage Lott has done. I know it was an innocent faux pas, but it doesn't take away the problem. He has failed to defuse the situation, and has, in fact, made it worse.
What would be your solution to this problem? I don't have a really good answer, but I am confident that if we look for solutions instead of throwing grenades at each other we can figure something out which could be passed on to the White House and the Senate.
I don't know the answer either. I just can't understand why this race card keeps working so well when we know who started it. I am not ready to throw a man to the wolves because someone paints him as a racist. That isn't right and I won't be a part of it.
I will say upfront that I have missed the interview, but read comments posted here. It seems to me that Lott has not only admitted being a racist (comments about learning and growing) but he has implied that we are ALL racists. This is absolutely INTOLERABLE.
We need someone GOOD to be out there tomorrow at 9am calling a press conference and denouncing Lott in the most extreme terms for selling us out. Stand in front of the cameras and tell the whole world what the GOP stands for.
We stand for equality for everyone. THAT'S why we support school vouchers. Affirmative action is no more than telling black people, "You can't do it on your own." SS reform, tort reform, and every other damn GOP idea applies to everyone as equally as can be.
We need to say it, we need to explain it, and we need to fight for it with our dying breath. THAT is what Trent Lott failed to do.
As soon as he was questioned he ran away and the blood was in the water. If his collegues in the Senate could have been assured that Lott would stand and fight and be fierce then they may have gone out on a limb and fought for him too. But, personally, I wouldn't have risked it either.