[sinkspur]

Could a principled (by that I mean conservative) person approved of Sen. Lott's comments?

Did you approve of Dick Armey's comments, labelling Barney Frank "Barney Fag"? No, but you understood that he simply misspoke. Lott has a habit of going overboard on Thurmond when he's in his presence, and I don't think it has anything to do with approving of segregation. Lott's voting record certainly isn't segregationist.

So, he's not SML, he's still one of us, and no one has called him a racist.

You're not that naive. No one, liberal or conservative thinks Lott is anything but a hood-wearing, segregationist-favoring racist. That's what forcing him out of the SML position meant, and everybody knows it but you.

[optimistically_conservative]

Did you approve of Dick Armey's comments, labelling Barney Frank "Barney Fag"? No, but you understood that he simply misspoke.

Misspoke? No, he didn't misspeak. And I understood exactly what he was saying and how he felt about Sen. Frank's "lifestyle choice."

Misspeaking would be, for instance, "Solomon Barney Frank."

I guess I am naive. I think Sen. Lott was a segregationist. I think it's part of his past. He grew up with it, fought for it, then accepted desegregation.

But I admit I'm satisfied in my naivety.

[Intolerant in NJ]

You're not that naive. No one, liberal or conservative thinks Lott is anything but a hood-wearing, segregationist-favoring racist. That's what forcing him out of the SML position meant, and everybody knows it but you...David Letterman on TV last week :"And we all know what Trent Lott wants - a WHITE Christmas" - he's damaged goods, and libs are already calling for him to leave the Senate because, after all, he still has one vote on the floor just as he had when he was ML - had 'pubs rallied to his support after his first or second apology instead of demanding more and more because he wasn't "emotional enough" or because he used the phrase "discarded policies" instead of "rejected policies", this really would have been a 2002 memory, but the residual damages are going to linger for quite awhile into 2003 and maybe beyond IMO.....