The ringing applause after that "historic" speech by Bush, was the democrats applauding and cheering him on. Course many republican apologists were also on board with the democrat socialists, exultating at the ritual cleansing.
That was a lovely speech...only problem is your facts are a bit distorted.
Many major Dems were not applauding Lott's demotion at all, but in fact wanted him to stay on as Majority Leader as a punching bag. (including the Black Caucus, Alan Colms etc. etc.)
Furthermore the Republicans are not "apologists" for Bush, because Bush didn't nothing to apologize for. I agree 100% with how Bush handled the Lott mess.
It's really sad to see that a few die-hard Lott/Dixiecrat apologists are still not ready to come to terms with reality... are still fighting this long lost war.