I too find it interesting that Lott’s quiet nodding at his white constituents is suddenly important. My guess is the Democrats have finally found a clear-cut issue that they can easily win on that doesn’t involve Iraq.
I think it’s more that, while Lott wasn’t making bonehead remarks, his nodding and winking was deniable, and wasn’t actively hurting the Republicans attempt to recast themselves as racially inclusive.
Then Lott dropped his cigarette butt on a pile of oily rags.
I’ve been pondering elucidator’s points about the seeming swiftness of the GOP in turning on Lott. I actually thought Jeevemon had nailed it in this post from the pit thread.
Of course, GWB has now publicly excoriated Lott himself. I wonder if this was precipitated in any way by W.'s close relationship with Condaleeza Rice. I don’t believe that she would buy any of Lott’s bullshit back-pedalling, and I also think that Bush values and respects Rice’s opinion far more than he values and respects Trent Lott.
Essentially, though, I think Jeevemon is right. This administration will not tolerate a damaged political entity running the senate. I don’t think Lott will be asked to resign his senate seat, but he may get a phone call strongly suggesting that he remove himself as a candidate for senate majority leader.
while I agree with much of what you said, I’m not black and I was offended by what Lott said.
Somebody really needs to get rich by teaching public figures how to apologize effectively and in such a way as to do damage control. Falwell/Robertson’s post-9-11 “we didn’t mean any offense saying God was aiming for sodomites and feminists and missed” apology, Clinton’s “I did not have sex with that woman… well, sex is a tricky word” apology, Lott, etc… Maybe a multimedia update of THE PRINCE is in order.
The public will forgive a sinner much sooner than they will an idiot or a liar. If Lott had said “I was drunk and talking out of my ass”, or Falwell had said “I had just seen a skyscraper blown up by an airplane and was trying to make sense of it and made a dumbass statement”, or Clinton had said “I committed adultery, I’m sorry I did it, I’d really rather not talk about it, let’s please drop it”, I think it would have all gone much better on them. But if I have never been a public figure and am working a middle-class job and I can figure this out, why the hell can’t their 6 figure handlers?
Just send them a tape of Jimmy Swaggart’s tearful begging for forgiveness. Now that’s self-flagellation!
What’s up with Lott’s 1992 renunciation of the Council of Conservative Citizens ? Has he renounced the renunciation ? I was just perusing the ccc website, and they have nothing but praise for the good Senator.
There’s a lovely picture of Lott on the main page: C of CC
Also at the site is a resolution commending his work defending our borders from the Hispanic Menace:
Here. Note the date on this !
This seems a little blatant for the republican party to credibly claim ignorance. Don’t they run background checks before electing their leaders ?
Clinton’s apology was actually pretty similar to that. Though he just said he was sorry for what he did without admitting anything.
Buncha overreaction here and elsewhere. I don’t see Lott stepping down from majority leader. All that will come of it is a couple of weeks of Lott appologizing and being criticized by every Democrat who isn’t in a coma. And a couple of pubies who want to look good to their black constituents. The News hounds will find something else to slobber over, and your dem talking heads will try to bring up the dead horse next elections.
OK, Minty is this high enough up the Republican leadership for you? Bush denounces Lott’s remarks.
But where did he call for his resignation? I for one hope he stays on as leader of the Republicans in the Senate. He would be a constant reminder of what might lurk in the hearts of the compassionate conservative.
On another note, I have read postings of several conservatives/Republicans, here (IIRC) and elsewhere refer to Lott as having botched the impeachment. Perhaps this is a matter for a different thread, but how is he supposed to have done this? Seemed to me at the time he tried pretty hard.
With respect to party leaders calling for his actual resignation that would be almost unheard of this early into the story. You always want to give your own guys a chance to either wiggle out of their own mess or make the resignation call themselves.
Well, he’s got BS all right.
Does racial discrimination always violate public policy?
Yes, even though it does not always violate the law.
But consensual affairs do not have anything to do with public policy, despite the usual attempts to say “Clinton did something like that too, so shut up”.
elucidator, there may not be any one scheme under the surface about Lott’s future. It’s impossible to have his position and not make enemies all around, or even simply be seen as an obstacle to others’ ambitions. The sharks are always circling, and now they smell blood in the water, and the feeding frenzy is starting. They don’t have to be organized to be frenzied, and all it takes is one shark to be the first to notice and tell the others (nice work, Al).
I doubt Lott has been asked to depart by anyone who has influence with him, but the implication is there in every denunciation. If a Republican office-holder is holding back in public statements, it may be out of fear that Lott won’t be gone after all, but will still be in position to exact retribution.
But when Jay Leno is making jokes about you, you’re done (unless you’re Clinton), and Lott’s done. Trent, take the rest of the bigoted cohort that Nixon wooed away from the Dems after the 1964 Civil Rights Act with his “Southern Strategy” with you, too.
I hope you’re right. Lott’s holding a press conference this afternoon at 4:30 CST to apologize again and put this behind him, but not to step down, says www.drudgereport.com
The essential problem is not his recent comments, but his views.
If he had never spoken this way in the past, explaining this as a slip of the tongue might work. But we know better.
Whites outside the South over the age of 50 and Blacks of every age and place know what this is about. It’s not about what happened thirty years ago, but Lott’s view of those matters now.
A blogger named Josh Chafetz has a different prediction about Lott’s press conference.
Got my fingers crossed.
Trent Lott has always been saying these kinds of things, and it was a tip of the hat to his supporters. Even those who like him (and I do have a conservative friend who knows him personally) say he is well educated and not a loudmouth, but an idiot. But his position and supporters over the years do nothing to dispell the notion that he is a racist who usually keeps his mouth shut. This is one of the major concerns that liberals have about the Republican party.
I think the Republicans should have got rid of Lott as their Senate leader long ago. That they do not have better does not bode well for them.