Posted on 12/17/2002 8:04:12 PM PST by TLBSHOW
Opposition Research Starts on Nickles
Early this week, I told those of you who want Trent Lott gone that dumping him will not end the smearing. I said, "Even now, Democratic Party operation research is giving a Clymer exam to the records of all potential Lott replacements." Sure enough, Jim Abrams of the Associated Press has run the first hit piece on Senator Don Nickles (R-OK), who came out against Lott on one of the Sunday shows.
Headline: "Nickles' Voting Record on Civil Rights Mirrors Lott's." The subtext here is that Don Nickles embraces segregation, "too" because that's what they say about Lott. This is going to keep happening to Republicans until we stop being worried about whether or not we're all thought of as racists. It's going to keep happening until we start tackling this with the mountain of historical facts about the Republican Party's history on civil rights.
I guarantee you they're working on similar stories about Senators McConnell, Frist, Domenici and anyone else who might replace Lott. Without mentioning the Democrats who also opposed it, Abrams dutifully transcribes the DNC talking point that Nickles opposed making Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday. He does write that "Nickles unsuccessfully pushed alternatives to a paid holiday," but follows it up quickly with the fact that he backed a Jesse Helms amendment to preserved tax exempt status for private schools, such as Bob Jones University.
You must mention Bob Jones; it's obligatory if AP wants to keep getting the DNC faxes and not have to actually do their own research instead. There's a whole bunch of tax exempt colleges out there, but you have to name this one. Everywhere in this article it's "Lott and Nickles." It's like reading an article about Sonny & Cher. AP also reports that "the senators" again, they are one-and-the-same, "differed with the NAACP" on Head Start, education programs, the confirmation of John Ashcroft and global AIDS funding.
So they're all bigots, because they dared disagree with the NAACP and supported Ashcroft. They're already moving on from Lott to Nickles, as proved by the quote AP printed from Hillary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington office: "We're concerned..." Oh, she's quoting Daschle! "We're concerned that Nickles has voted just as poorly or even more poorly than Trent Lott." [Italics added] Do you see this? Nickles is even worse, now! I hate to say See, I Told You So, but this is all happening. We have to take this garbage on. There's no other way to stop it.
Acutally, that's been the tack of Lott's defenders. Since his actual words were nostalgic for Thurmond's Dixiecrat campaign, we're told that's not what he "really meant," or "really thought."
Either way, it was really, fatally, dumb. That's a really suitable last straw.
No I take words as they are spoken and leave the mind reading to Miss Cleo. This was pay back for Lott not following thru on the impeachment and it has nothing to do with race beyond a convenient "last straw". Keep on rationalizing it becomes you.
You're projecting, and not very artfully
Some of my closest friends now are the ones I fought the hardest during Elian.
I've just never seen anything like this; color me confused.
Look, you cannot compare a stupid comment with criminal activity. You cannot, that is, unless you are on the Left.
Hm?
It's true, because we didn't give him cover, allow him to apologize with dignity, and then close ranks.
We didn't do it because we--collectively--are still so worried about what the press has to say about us.
I repeat: It has been thirty years of racial McCarthyism, and this episode shows us that it is just as potent, and just as insidious, as it ever has been.
True. And I submit that this started when he looked around and saw he had no support. Because he is, unfortunately, the typical politician, his next thought was simply for his political survival.
You know, that IS pathetic. But expecting much more of a career politician is SIMPLY UNREALISTIC.
After watching Lott on BET selling himself out as well as promising to sell out his conservative constituency as further penance, he can longer be entrusted to do the right thing for the GOP.
Spot on. And once again, we on the conservative side bear some responsibility for that.
Lott is what he is, but he could have continued as OUR 'useful idiot.' Since we are, apparently, not so savvy in this regard, we've aided and abetted a horrible situation.
It's horrible for the following reasons:
1. We've put Lott in the position where he cannot continue as leader, because our refusal to support him was equivalent to agreement with the Left that he's a "racist," and because he can't continue as leader he'll likely have to resign his Senate seat as well.
2. We allowed the Left to turn this from a focus on one man, to all Republicans. We were so preoccupied with our "opportunity" to get rid of Lott that we didn't pay any attention to, nor even deign to address, those charges. They've gone unanswered so they're now assumed correct.
3. Because we've allowed THAT to go on, we've now set the stage for the next two years. Every piece of legislation is now going to be cast as a referendum on Republican racism.
All this horror, simply because we couldn't do the pragmatic thing and give this guy cover for a single apology and a graceful segue away from the whole situation.
Pathetic.
The lack of respect for Lott that you see among conservatives is nothing new. Many of us have wanted him replaced for a very long time. This vicious attack on him from the left is quite deliberately designed to prevent Republicans from putting someone else in charge.
But he can't stay. We've made sure of that, and now we're going to have to live with the aftermath.
I'm watching Fox News right now, and all the discussion is about how this has left the Democrats in such a strong position, and how the Dems now want Lott to stay because it would mean the Republican agenda is dead.
Pathetic. And our fault, the fault of those who can't see the forest for that single tree.
One problem with FR is that too many of us focus on the immediate agenda, and not the means whereby the agenda can be implemented.
That's why you have so many C3POs (my own term: "Conservative Third Party Oddballs") lurking around here. They're people who see everything in terms of philosophy, with pragmatism conspicuously absent.
You can see it on this thread. The discussion is all about what Lott did, what Lott said, what a putz he is, yaddayaddayadda. And when you try to point out the inevitable outcome of his shunning, they put hands on hips and retort "well, it's all his fault."
Who the h*ll CARES about whose FAULT it is, when the means for our proceeding to implement all this stuff we've TALKED about for years is going down the tubes, and we could have done something to stop it, but didn't because we don't like the man?
Perhaps the democrats would loan the pubs a decent senator to be acting majority leader until such time as the pubs get thru cleansing their ranks???
Now are you saying someone with a lisp can't be smart?
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