Posted on 01/02/2003 6:12:39 AM PST by sheltonmac
Most Americans seem to believe that Trent Lott deserved to suffer for his "insensitive" comments at Strom Thurmond's birthday celebration. Now that Lott has been forced to step down as Senate Majority Leader, neo-conservative Republicans are the ones cheering the loudest.
"We've wanted him gone for a long time," some have said. "We needed to get rid of him and move on with our agenda." The trouble is, no one in the party seems to know exactly what that agenda is.
Of course, that hasn't stopped neo-cons before. Pragmatism has always trumped principle, and as long as the polls reflect public approval for their actions, they really don't care about anything else. They must increase their majority in 2004 at any cost, and to do that they must first shake their xenophobic image.
As everyone knows, the GOP has long been branded as the party of racists. Such labels have been successfully utilized by the liberal left for years, and Republicans have tried everything to keep those labels from sticking. The end result is that in order to present the voting public with a kinder, gentler GOP, Republicans typically begin adopting Democratic positions.
It's the same three-step process every time: 1) liberals make the accusation of racism against a Republican, 2) the Republican denies the charge and 3) the Republican agrees to sign on to the liberal agenda, hoping that in doing so he might prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is not a racist. The entire fiasco surrounding Trent Lott is only the latest example of this kind of Republican cowardice.
Lott's comments sparked all the predictable reactions from all the usual suspects. Men like Al Sharpton and NAACP president Kweisi Mfume —both veteran champions of racial divisiveness —wasted no time in attacking the senator.
Sharpton, who had remained strangely silent in 2001 when Senate Democrat Robert Byrd let fly with his "white niggers" remark, said, "[Lott] should step aside. No one is saying that if the people of Mississippi want to elect him to the Senate that they don't have the right to do that. But to be the head of the party in the Senate, given the sensitivity of that position for the interest of the country and the party, Mr. Lott should step aside."
Mfume's response was a bit more harsh. He called Lott's little speech "hateful bigotry that has no place in the halls of the Congress," and dismissed Lott's subsequent apology as "too little, too late."
Reacting to the verbal barrage from the left, the neo-cons scattered. No one even bothered to mention the possibility that Lott was simply acknowledging the distinguished political career of his 100-year-old colleague. Nobody proposed that when the senator from Mississippi implied that we would be better off had Strom Thurmond been elected president in 1948, he was referring to some of the more noble causes Thurmond stood for, like states' rights and a less-intrusive federal government.
No, the neo-cons were so desperate to prove that they could be just as racially sensitive as their slightly more liberal counterparts that Lott's political fate had already been sealed. He was the perfect fall guy, and his sacrifice was worth it if it meant keeping the GOP in power.
Republicans, listen up. Whether you agree that Trent Lott should have resigned as Majority Leader or not, his ousting is yet another sign that you just don't get it. No matter what you say or do, you will always be viewed by the left as a bunch of bigots and racists. Bending to political peer pressure doesn't help —in fact, it makes you look weak. The sooner you learn that, the sooner we can begin repairing the damage your party has done to the conservative cause.
But it's probably too late. The mob has spoken, and Trent Lott has been forced out of his leadership role. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah summed up what Republicans expect of Bill Frist, Lott's successor: "I think Bill has a kind of a more moderate record and a more moderate approach toward things, and I think that it's going to be very difficult to criticize him."
In other words, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." And that, my friends, has become the battle cry of the neo-conservatives in the GOP, Party of Cowards.
LOL, ok, I will give you that one, but can you name any others?
Nonsequitor-rhetorical -- your logic again.
I didn't say they were gonna put it away. They tried this crap in 2000 with the NAACP commercial trying to insinuate that Bush was guilty of the Jasper draggings. Didn't work. And if they try and keep this up, the GOP will put Byrd into play, who was kind enough to make himself a target by doing a cameo as a slaveholding Civil War general in an upcoming movie. And the voters will get sick of it, and shut the idiocy out.
If they try, Congress will kill it again - just as TIA is facing bipartisan heat and will probably either be curtailed or killed. Unfortunately, there were aspects of TIA that probably would have been beneficial had they not wanted to gather a massive amount of personal data - the feds desperately need to improve their techniques for analyzing their existing data stream - but TIPS and TIA sought to increase the stream, not manage it.
Tell me, what would you rather have a major figure in the party in the headlines for: Dumb comments, or for rendering aid in a very nasty automobile accident, saving four of six victims?
Huh? Higher standards? Who are you kidding? And what have the Republicans done to slow down, or stop this massive influx of millions of illegal aliens into our country???
We are attacked by foreigners with our own aircraft, trained in our own schools yet our borders and immigration policies are a complete "free for all".
This invasion disaster has changed this entire country. Our taxes have gone up, wages have been driven down, our social services choked off, our jails are full of illegal aliens, our emergency services and our hospitals are completely overwhelmed! This immigration disaster is not only a national disgrace, it is now a nation security nightmare.
This invasion of many millions has been going on Before Bush's Dad was in office! What did President Bush's Dad do about it? Nothing! Where is this higher standard?
Higher standard? Higher standard? And you bring up someone, a doctor even, LOL! stopping at a vehicle collision and helping out? Most eveyone I know would stop and assist or offer any assistance they possibly could. This aint no big deal. Any normal American would do what they could to help out.
What the heck is this? What the ---- kind of analogy is this???
Higher standard? LOL!
Your rant about immigration is a non sequitor for this discussion. Stuff it - we police our own ranks. If you don't like it, tough.. Get a couple of quarters and call someone who cares to hear your whining, because I DON'T.
Good Republican party response. All heads down......
Hillary never passes up an opportunity to have bush ;-)
I hope you are right, but I just don't have quite the same faith in the voters. I think many of them are total idiots. Look how many voted for Al Gore Bore.
How much manufacturing does a country need to do in order to survive international blackmail and to be able to defend inself?
Free trade is good, except when it destroys our defenses.
In the end, it didn't matter, and look how many voted for GOP candidates in the 2002 elections, in defiance of historical patterns of the party holding the White House losing ground in midterm elections.
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