Condescending cr*ppola...like 99% of your whole response to me this morning on this thread.
Lott's supporters are spending all of their time and energy trying to find someone to blame...well, you need look no further than Mr. Lott. This circus has had only one ring from the beginning, and he has made sure he was the clown act right out there in the middle of the ring.
You accuse me of shortsightedness? I would contend that it is you yourself who is being incredibly shortsighted. Defending Lott, by the President, or the Republican rank and file, would have simply taken the whole GOP down into the hole Lott dug for himself, and made us all look as craven as he himself actually is.
The White House and most Republicans have kept their focus on the core principles they represent throughout this Lott-induced bad dream, and have kept their powder dry for the battles to come in '03 and '04. They have kept their sights on the big picture and the long-term goals, while Lott has used up all of his political bullets on an inanity.
We don't need a 'useful idiot' as Majority Leader. We need someone who is smarter than to go on national TV and declare that we must 'build on the failures of the past' like Lott did.
We need a Leader who has not compromised himself so badly that he thinks he must go on national TV and declare his allegiance to the racism of affirmative action.
Lott is a liablity in the Majority Leader position. Most here knew it long ago. Even his supporters here preface their remarks with that admisission over and over and over.
He's not being crucified. He's not being sent to a gulag. He is being given a graceful exit with his position as Mississippi's Senator intact. He just needs to show he cares more for the country and his party than he does about Trent Lott, by taking that graceful exit and shutting up, and stopping his embarrassment of us all.
What I am is a defender of the Republican majority in the Senate.
This nihilistic drive by so many conservatives to upset the system and rack things around as much as possible so that when the dust clears we have guys WE like sitting on top is just naive, and that's why I say you and others like you are political naifs.
You build a solid, unshakeable structure in order to achieve your goals. If you overreach in a foolish manner, the walls often come tumbling down (as Bill Clinton and the Dems found to their dismay in 1994, in the wake of Hillarycare).
It was not necessary to eject Lott. Lott is NOT John McCain, threatening everything if he doesn't have it all his way. He's just a good ol' boy that likes his cushy sinecure, and who will work with the right people--like Pres. Bush--leading him around by the leash.
Instead, you've gained NOTHING and threatened the structure that's been carefully built, just to punish Lott.
"Cut off your nose to spite your face." Fits the scenario perfectly.
A perfect example of what I'm talking about when I say "politically naive."
Since you DON'T understand politics and politicians, and that many of them think of their position, FIRST, before they think of anything else (and don't start this silly, adolescent whining about how we shouldn't elect people like that; that's the kind of people who WANT to be elected. This description fits 90% of the people who are in elected office, and it fits 99.9% of 'em who ever run for reelection) then it comes as a SHOCK to you that Lott did what he did. Whereas it didn't surprise me at all. In fact, you watch: If Nickles gets in, he's going to do much the same thing (though he may not sound so desparate about it).
When you hung Lott out to dry, told him in effect that his position was now threatened, NOT because he committed a major crime, not even because violated any sort of rule of ethics, but simply because he said something ill-advised and downright stupid.
So then, when he looks around and sees that NO ONE has his back, he says to himself "I guess I'm going to have to save myself."
Then he goes on BET and says something that you REALLY DON'T like! (because let's face it: What he said to Strom Thurmond didn't hurt one single human being on this planet, no matter what skin color or political persuasion).
When he starts threatening in that roundabout way to, in essence, defect to the other side, it's pretty much over for all of us.
We've got to get rid of him, and when we do we run the risk EITHER that he's going to step down (in which case the Dems win his seat) or he's going to curry favor with the other side (since we've already shown that we hate him).
It was stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID on the part of conservatives to do this. Just idiotic beyond my capacity to relate.