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"Lee Atwater's dying words were expressions of regret for making race too much of an issue in a presidential campaign."

Says who?! Bob Woodward, perhaps?! I love Lee Atwater, but that's sounds like the incoherent rantings of a dying man!!

"I don't think polarizing on the race issue is a good way of doing battle with DemonRATS."

Who said ANYTHING about "polarizing on the race issue"?! Wasn't me...I believe we need to quit pretending that Pubbies are Racists and DemonRATS are pure as the driven snow!! Let's bring this issue to a head, then pop the Left's Big Ol' Issue** once and fer all!!

"I'm firmly against racism and I've been active in constructive civil rights projects in the past. But I'm just not sure it's effective to throw labels around."

There ain't a prejudiced bone in my body, as each and every one of my black friends will tell you...but I'll throw around labels as I see fit and if the RATS wanna own up to the labels I'm throwin' around, it's 'cuz the RAT Party is RACIST!!

FReegards...MUD

**Left's Big Ol' Issue...think of the Race Issue as a Big Ugly Zit!!

I respectfully still dissent from whether it's an *effective* strategy. I think it's more effective to explain to people of all races that we're the party of economic opportunity and of meritocracy. I think a positive message by Republicans reaching out directly to different groups is much more effective. Like Jeb Bush's efforts in Florida. I'm not doubting your point that there are racists Democrats is accurate. I'm most respectfully doubting the effectiveness of such a strategy.

You ask me "who says" Lee Atwater regretted playing the race card -- at least in the way he did.

The answer is: Lee Atwater. In a death-bed confessional written for Life magazine, Atwater, who died of cancer in 1991, spoke with deep regret of the bitter war he waged against Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee. He said:

"In 1988, fighting Dukakis, I said that I 'would strip the bark off the little bastard' and 'make Willie Horton his running mate.' I am sorry for both statements: the "Mostly I am sorry for the way I thought of other people. Like a good general, I had treated everyone who wasn't with me as against me."

Now, in saying we should be careful about the race card, please note I am *not* saying the Republican party does it more often or is more morally culpable for it. As Christopher Hitchens is wont to remind us all (May 21, 1999 interview):

One of the signs I thought that hysteria had set in during the last days of the Clinton impeachment campaign was that so many of his supporters decided to say, "Well, at least he's black. He's the equivalent of an African American." To say, well, if someone is a sexual delinquent in a dysfunctional family, that's sort of what we expect from our duskier brothers... excuse me, I don't want to be caught thinking that, let alone saying it. I don't think it and wouldn't say it. And if it had not been said in defense of someone emotionally liberal, everyone would have known how to denounce that kind of vernacular, I hope. They certainly used to. At least as recently as Willie Horton they did know how to do that. Don't forget, though, that Willie Horton was Al Gore's idea. Al Gore used it against Dukakis in the primaries, long before Mr. Lee Atwater ran with it and made it stick. A thing that all Democrats know but none of them remember.

So there's your evidence. I know of what I speak on this topic.