Sure it is. You're sounding the alarm about this supposed "real crisis" with terrible and frightening "consequences" simply because Lott resigned his ML position.
Most Republicans have come to the reasonable decision that Lott has become too weakened by this controversy to continue as an effective leader.
You're portrayal of them as "panic stricken" is more descriptive of the hysterical tone of your post than anything else.
The reality is that the inside the beltway Republicans have played right into their enemies hands, when indeed the tactics being used against them have been used repeatedly. It is that fact alone, which makes the Republican response so absolutely stupid.
No, Lott's comments that originally stirred up this controversy are what were absolutely stupid.
Republicans have long been aware of the DemonRat smear and fear-monger tactics, and are sophisticated enough to handle their nonsense.
Lott on the other hand showed his political clumsiness by making statements that played right into the the Democrat smear machine.
Bush and the Republicans were wise not to attempt to defend his stupid comments.
Actually, if you have read my essay Trent Lott Affair--Anatomy & Context of a Smear, you would know that I discuss how the Left has been perfecting their techniques for this sort of thing for a hundred years.
How boring. We don't need to read an essay to know what the left smear and fearmongering tactics are about.
And the fact is, there's nothing "perfect" about their techniques at all...as evidenced by they majority of their smear campaigns against Bush that have totally flopped and/or backfired on them.
In not understanding how to respond in a manner that did not tend to play into the demagogue's hands, the Republicans in Washington have painted themselves into a disasterous corner. On the one hand, they have divided their base. On the other, they have shown their foes a tactical vulnerability.
Are you trying to make me laugh on purpose or what?
We've heard these ominous warnings before about so-called Reopublican disasters before...and the fact is they've ended up controlling the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Spare us your frantic hysteria about how Trent Lott stepping down as ML is painting a doomsday scenario for the entire Republican party.
Contrary to your panic stricken alarms about how this has supposedly divided our base and shown a tactical vulnerabiltity, and spells disaster for the GOP...I say it will prove the exact opposite.
It will diffuse the attempts by the Dems to make an issue out of Lott's statements.
They lose. We win.
It should also be kept in mind, that Strom Thurmond, more than anyone else on Capital Hill, has been associated with trying to get more Conservatives on the Federal Bench. That was the price he demanded for delivering the Southern support, which brought the Republican party back from a minority status. Humiliating Lott--admittedly a weak adversary in this--over a whimsical tribute to Thurmond, will have many aspects in the future fights over judicial nominees.
This is such a stretch. You obviously have far too much time on your hands to construct these unrealistic and unlikely scenarios.
Bush has not been subjected to the Lott treatment. There are various types of smears, and those directed at Bush are the usual clumsy efforts. Since Bush has repeatedly given lip service to the sort of campus values that the Left was counting on in the Lott gambit, there would have been no point.
But the Lott gambit was a probe. If they hadn't found something useful from Lott, they would have picked someone else. The possibilities are limitless, because they are now capitalizing on the conditioned guilt reflexes that have been instilled in many educated Americans, and know that certain probes will always evoke a conditioned response. No person, cooly reflective, would see any issue at all in a flight of fancy, about an event 54+ years ago, at a birthday party, honoring a Centenarian. No this was a probe, to see how the Republicans would respond to an off the wall attack, and they hit a raw nerve, when all of the inside the beltway types went defensive.
As for your other comments? Well, my friend, time will tell. Let us revisit this subject, a year from now. For anyone else, who wants a hardly panicy analysis of the considerations involved, in this ongoing and still developing event: The Trent Lott Affair--Anatomy & Context Of A Smear.
William Flax