Posted on 12/18/2002 3:51:50 PM PST by TLBSHOW
Democrats: A Lott of trouble
I'm just glad Strom Thurmond isn't around to see this.
Statisticians believe Trent Lott is now on track to break Bill Clinton's single-season record for public apologies. During his recent B.E.T. appearance, Lott said he supported affirmative action, regretted voting against the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and that he'd give "The Bernie Mac Show" another try.
What the Lott incident shows is that Republicans have to be careful about letting Democrats into our party. Back when they supported segregation, Lott and Thurmond were Democrats. This is something the media are intentionally hiding to make it look like the Republican Party is the party of segregation and race discrimination, which it never has been.
In 1948, Thurmond did not run as a "Dixiecan," he ran as a "Dixiecrat" his party was an offshoot of the Democratic Party. And when he lost, he went right back to being a Democrat. This whole brouhaha is about a former Democrat praising another former Democrat for what was once a Democrat policy.
Republicans made Southern Democrats drop the race nonsense when they entered the Republican Party. Democrats supported race discrimination, then for about three years they didn't, now they do again. They've just changed which race they think should be discriminated against. In the 1920s, the Democratic platforms didn't even call for anti-lynching legislation as the Republican platforms did.
Thurmond's Dixiecrat Party was not the only extremist spin-off from the Democratic Party in 1948. Henry Wallace, formerly FDR's vice president and agriculture secretary, left the Democratic Party that year to form the communist-dominated and Soviet-backed "Progressive Party." Much as Thurmond's Dixiecrat Party was expressly pro-segregation, Wallace's Progressive Party was expressly pro-Soviet.
Indeed, this was the apex of Moscow-directed subversion of U.S. politics. The Progressive Party platform excluded even the mildest criticism of Soviet aggression. It will come as no surprise that many American celebrities supported Wallace. The Progressives received 1 million votes nationwide, about the same as Thurmond's Dixiecrat Party.
Thurmond went on to reject segregation, become a Republican, and serve his country well as a U.S. senator. By contrast, running a communist-dominated presidential campaign was Wallace's last hurrah. Yet only an off-the-cuff remark at a birthday party praising Thurmond's presidential campaign is the career-destroyer. Not so fawning references to Wallace's Soviet-backed presidential campaign.
Just two years before Lott's remarks, a hagiographic book on Wallace's life was released, titled "American Dreamer." How about a book about a segregationist titled "American Dreamer"? Wallace's version of the American "dream" was communism every bit as much as Strom Thurmond's dream was segregation. Aren't dreams of murderous dictators, gulags and death camps at least comparable in evil to segregated lunch counters?
The dust jacket on "American Dreamer" featured a nauseating statement of praise by U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy. Kennedy said that the book deserved "to be read by all who care about the American dream." The American dream: communist totalitarianism. Why wasn't the lecherous liberal asked to retire for his flattering remarks about a proven Soviet fifth columnist?
In 1999, the Clinton administration dedicated a room at the Agriculture Department to Wallace. At the dedication, former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern gave a speech explicitly praising Wallace's pro-Soviet positions, such as the idea that the Cold War was "overdone" and that "problems" between the nations "could not be resolved by military means."
McGovern fondly recalled that he himself had voted for Wallace. He chipperly reminded the audience that he had run for president in 1972 "on a similar platform" with the help of a young Yale law school graduate named Bill Clinton. Inasmuch as Trent Lott was in kindergarten in 1948, he did not vote for Thurmond. He did not run on a "similar" platform to the Dixiecrats. He did not write a jacket-flap endorsement calling a segregationist an "American Dreamer."
The idea that Lott took the occasion of an old timer's birthday to introduce a new policy initiative to bring back segregation a Democrat policy is ludicrous. Lott is a fine fellow; he just has some sort of liberal-Tourette's syndrome that makes him spout Democrat ideas at random. A few years ago, Lott practically wanted to give the adulterous Air Force pilot Kelly Flinn a silver star for her service. Remember that?
Up until two weeks ago, conservatives were clamoring for Lott's removal precisely because of his annoying habit of saying dumb things. (Showing their inferior intellect, liberals have only recently figured that out.) Republicans should ask Lott to step down as leader, but only for all the nice things he's said about Teddy Kennedy.
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You don't even make sense anymore.
Just saying crap doesn't work, you have to PROVE your point.
No they don't, my FRiend...I know this for a fact 'cuz we argued about it elsewhere.
FReegards...MUD
They will bend him over from now until the day he retires.
He must go.
Bears Repeating. I saw Ann on O'Reilly once. IMO, she is very smart and doesn't pull punches, but I agree w/ you on looks. Boney blondes aren't my type either.
LOTT means ALWAYS having to say you're sorry.
Ours is a sorry Lott indeed.
I agree...Lott will make a wonderful Senator from the Great State of Mississippi, but he's demonstrated himself to be a bad man to assume the position of Senate Majority Leader...MUD
I didn't see either on of them holding a gun to Lott's head when he decided to make his stupid remarks.
Like it or not T, politics is the art of what NOT to say most of the time.
MHO, you are right on target.
From what I know about Mr. Lott, he don't got a Race Issue near as bad as JessieJackAss or Maxine"LoveMehard,Bubba"Waters...but that don't mean he's the right man fer the job of SML, IMHO...MUD
You might want to let him know where they are. He's been searching for them for several years.
I don't see where we disagree.
I am not willing to save Lott and lose Pickering, and it is evident that to save Lott from his lot, the GOP will have to ante up a little bit of its recently gained power and hand it over to the other side of the isle.
Lott is supposed to be better than this, he's not some freshman congressman from Yeehaw Junction, he is a major player in some rather serious games.
Yet, he wants an opportunity for on-the-job training to shed his racial cluelessness... with a thin Senate majority... a rare GOP trifecta in the Executive and Legislative Branches... the next decade or two of the Supreme Court at stake... while jeopardizing the GOP's chances in 2004... in wartime.
I look at this debate and on the other side I see, "it's not fair, we can't cave to the Democrats on this."
I guess our priorities are all messed up, Luis.
You're right in as much as this is a typical opportunistic RAT attack.
This IS about Lott, though. His near total lack of leadership qualities, inability to articulate conservative values, and general willingness to drop trou and grab his ankles at the first hint of opposition from the Rats has mired him eyebrow deep in a dungpile.
Had it not been this, it would have been something else sooner or later. Probably sooner. If the man had balls, a spine, and stood up for himself rather than endlessly regurgitating simpering apologies on every Rat venue available I would gladly back him.
is everyone so thick?
Yes, this is an attack on Republicans in general. If we're to defend ourselves we need an articulate, fearless spokesman. Lott ain't him. Let him go.
Never said we did, my FRiend...MUD
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