Senate Majority Leader: I wish the segregationist had won!

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by Chris 62
Back to the topic, what do people think of Bush's rather firm rebuke of Lott, is Bush sincere or in damage control mode?

Maybe a bit of both, but mostly damage control. Come on; sincerity, in politics? Get real. Bush and his people probably realize that it was a obscenely stupid thing to say, and are trying to distance themselves from Lott. The real test will be if the administration stands behind Lott for Majority Leader. Hell, even Cal Thomas is calling for his head.

EDIT: being written while Boris posted his reply. Like we share a brain...

[chequita guevara]

Begining of the end for Lott

Time: Trent Lott's Segregationist College Days

From Salon.com

Lott: It gets worse
Troubling new disclosures about the Senate's top Republican and his record on race relations raise questions about his fitness for office.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Anthony York



Dec. 13, 2002 | President Bush rebuked incoming Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott Thursday for his racially divisive remarks last week, and disturbing new revelations about Lott's record on race relations and wavering support among fellow Republicans raised new questions about whether he could hold on to the most powerful post in Congress.

A new report published by Time Magazine online detailed Lott's efforts to block integration of his fraternity while he studied at the University of Mississippi. And in a 1984 interview that circulated widely Thursday, Lott expressed strong opposition to the national holiday that had been established to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King.

Based on those and earlier disclosures, a picture emerged of Lott as a 21st century Republican leader who was still fighting battles that his ideological allies had lost in 1865 and in the civil rights era of the mid-1900s. It was a picture that made even past allies profoundly uneasy.

Conservative commentator William Bennett, the self-styled arbiter of American moral decline, said Lott's comments last week at a birthday bash for Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., were "offensive, repugnant and inimical to what the Republican Party stands for."

"If Senator Lott can provide a satisfactory explanation for his statement, this entire episode should be forgotten," said Bennett, the education secretary under President Ronald Reagan, in a statement reported by CNN. "If he cannot, he needs to step down as the Senate majority leader."

Lott's troubles began at Thurmond's bash, where he told the crowd the United States "wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years" if it had followed Mississippi's lead and backed Thurmond's 1948 bid for the presidency. And according to other reports this week, Lott made a similar comment in 1980 during a Reagan campaign rally. But Thurmond had openly run in '48 on a platform calling for segregation of the races. And though Lott has issued a series of explanations, regrets and apologies, the storm has continued to gather force.

Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe criticized Bush for his tardiness in speaking out. "Unfortunately, it took a full week and enormous political pressure for the president to personally acknowledge what the American people have known all along, that Sen. Lott's remarks are anathema to our democratic [principles]," McAuliffe said.

Of course, McAuliffe did not mention the tardiness of many Democrats in criticizing Lott. Some, like outgoing Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., initially accepted Lott's first apology Monday, and did not begin to criticize Lott's remarks until midweek.

Though some of Lott's dubious history has been reported in past years, the latest controversy has sent reporters sifting through his record on race issues. Those searches have yielded a steady stream of new and rediscovered data that has caused many to question his fitness to lead the Senate.

In his own defense, speaking to CNN's Larry King Wednesday, Lott said he had a record of promoting diversity in the state's universities. "I do have a long record of trying to involve African-Americans and supporting our historical black colleges and universities -- Jackson State University, Alcorn University -- making sure that we had an active intern program to bring African-Americans into the state."

But Time Magazine published a story on its Web site Thursday detailing a very different history concerning Lott and diversity on Mississippi campuses. The piece details Lott's fight -- ultimately unsuccessful -- to keep blacks out of the Sigma Nu fraternity while he was a student at Ole Miss.

"Trent was one of the strongest leaders in resisting the integration of the national fraternity in any of the chapters," said Tom Johnson, a former aide to President Lyndon Johnson who was a member of the same national fraternity as Lott during his student days at the University of Georgia. "He was against integration." The fraternity was integrated in 1968.

Salon contributor Joshua Micah Marshall posted on his Web site the full text of a 1984 interview Lott gave to Southern Partisan magazine. In it, Lott refers to the Civil War as "the War of Aggression" and explains his opposition to the "punitive voting rights legislation" Congress passed in the 1980s, and his vote against a national holiday celebrating King's birthday.

"I would not vote for a new holiday for anybody, including Thomas Jefferson," he told the magazine. "Look at the cost involved in the Martin Luther King holiday and the fact that we have not done it for a lot of people that were more deserving."

Democrats including Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., have called upon Lott to step aside as majority leader. A number of conservative leaders, including the head of the Family Research Council and the Wall Street Journal editorial page have joined former Vice President Al Gore, the Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights groups in calling for Lott to give up his leadership post. To date, no Republican senators have called for Lott's resignation, but some, like Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., encouraged Lott to give a major speech to civil rights groups to explain his positions on race matters.

Among those calling for Lott's resignation is People for the American Way president Ralph Neas. Neas said it is more than just Lott's recent comments that make him unfit for the post of Senate leader. "The more people find out about his overall record, the more they will continue to speak out," he said. "This was not an aberration. Throughout his career, Trent Lott has clearly demonstrated an insensitivity and hostility to key civil rights principles and protections."

Independent political analysts offered similar views Thursday.

"Daschle's reaction was everyone's initial reaction," said Morris P. Fiorina, a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University. "'Well, that was a dumb thing to say but we all say dumb things sometimes.' But it doesn't look like this was off the cuff when you realize he's said things like that before ... This wasn't a case of a guy tossing off a few beers."

Can Lott survive as Senate majority leader? "I couldn't predict that yet," Fiorina said, "but it seems more serious now than when it first appeared."

Bruce Cain, a political analyst at the University of California at Berkeley, suggested Lott could survive -- but that it might be difficult.

"That will depend exclusively on the Republicans," Cain said. "If they believe he's become a major electoral liability, he'll be thrown out ... Without looking at all the data, my guess is that he has become a liability, and they'll have to get rid of him in the next year or so."

Salon editorial fellow Laura McClure contributed to this report.

[Chris 62]

Not so sure Bush is completely into damage control.

His history race wise is very strong, I really think he was annoyed with Lott.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Chris 62
I really think he was annoyed with Lott.

Probably so, since Lott seems to have undone in a week what the Republicans have taken years to do, which was try and present a more diversity friendly Republican Party.

[Boris Godunov]

I think he was annoyed with Lott for making a statement that the Dems could get such political mileage out of.

I can't think that it is a sincere rebuke of the statement itself because it was so late in coming. It was in the media days before Bush said anything. They were waiting to see what the media fallout would be. When it was clear it wasn't going away and the issue was becoming a problem, then he stepped up.

Daschle is guilty of the same thing, though.

[Chris 62]

Daschle seemed to give Lott a pass, I thought, with his comments on it.

Some strategists think Lott needs to address the Black Cacus directly, explain himself and appologise more forcefully.

[Guynemer]

As I said, not completely damage control; heaven knows I don't have a high opinion of our president, but I've never thought of him as a racist. Some sincerity yes; but it's hard to know how much considering someone wrote those words for him. I'm not sure I'd describe his history "very strong" when it comes to race either, but when compared to Lott, he's practically a saint.

[Sava]

Personally, I think Daschle is a moron. As a Democratic leader, he doesn't take advantage of the Republicans' political blunders. Even Al Gore seems to be attacking the Republicans on their mistakes more than Daschle.

Edit: BTW, I don't think Bush is a racist, he's too stupid.

[Guynemer]

Daschle is changing his tune? Imagine that. So what is that ineffectual hack saying now that it appears people are turning against Lott?

[Chris 62]

No word today from the Dems, at least I haven't seen any.

I have a feeling Tom won't press to hard, he looked bad complaining about Rush Limbaugh and bad press, so you get the pot calling the kettle black.

[DinoDoc]

WASHINGTON Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Dec. 13 —
Sen. Trent Lott clung to support from his Republican colleagues as President Bush denounced his comments showing a nostalgia for the nation's segregationist past.

But the president stopped short of saying the Senate majority-leader-to-be had become a liability to the party.

"Any suggestion that the segregated past was acceptable or positive is offensive and it is wrong," Bush told a multiracial audience in Philadelphia on Thursday as the White House, intent on courting minority voters, moved forcefully to distance itself from Lott's remarks.

But Bush's spokesman said the president didn't believe Lott, set to take over as Senate majority leader in January, should step down, and several Republican senators came to his defense.

Black lawmakers demanded that Lott resign or be censured and critics dug up new examples from the Mississippi lawmaker's past they said revealed a pattern of disdain for civil rights.

"He has apologized, and rightly so," Bush said. "Every day our nation was segregated was a day that America was unfaithful to our founding ideals."

Lott's office quickly concurred.

"Senator Lott agrees with President Bush that his words were wrong and he is sorry. He repudiates segregation because it is immoral," Lott spokesman Ron Bonjean said.

Lott touched off the furor last week when, at the 100th birthday party of Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., he said Mississippians were proud to have voted for Thurmond in 1948 when he headed the pro-segregationist Dixiecrat ticket.

"And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either," Lott added.

Lott issued a short apology on Monday acknowledging his "poor choice of words," and, as criticisms continued to mount, gave several interviews on Wednesday in which he said his "terrible" and "insensitive" remarks were meant only as a gesture of affection for Thurmond.

The White House at first tried to stay clear of the controversy, but Bush and his advisers, in meetings Wednesday night and Thursday morning, decided it could undermine their efforts to increase black support in the next election. In 2000 Bush received just 9 percent of the black vote.

"The founding ideals of the political party I represent was and remains today the equal dignity and equal rights of every American," Bush told an audience including several black ministers in a speech unveiling a new policy to integrate religious charities into government programs.

White House officials said Lott was being given a chance to retain his leadership post, although it was ultimately up to Lott and his fellow GOP senators. Republicans, at least publicly, stood behind Lott.

"The president did Trent Lott a big favor today," said Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., who accompanied Bush to Philadelphia. "He basically cleared the air. ... This is not an issue that divides us anymore."

"I think Senator Lott has already fixed it," said Lott's Mississippi colleague, Republican Sen. Thad Cochran. "He's explained that he didn't mean to be endorsing any policies of the past, particularly the segregationist platform that Strom Thurmond ran on in '48."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has clashed with Lott on various issues in the past, said Lott still needed to "have a full-blown press conference with an opening description of his absolute outright hostility to discrimination in any form."

Lott, who has previously admitted supporting segregation as a student at the University of Mississippi when U.S. marshals brought the first black student to the school, continued to be battered by revelations on his civil rights record.

Time Magazine on Thursday reported that some 40 years ago Lott led an effort to prevent his all-white fraternity from integrating any of its chapter. Critics have also listed such past actions as his 1983 vote against a federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr., his 1982 vote against the Voting Rights Act extension and his efforts to restore confederate president Jefferson Davis' citizenship. It was also reported that at a 1980 rally in Mississippi he expressed similar regrets that Thurmond hadn't been elected in 1948.

"We have examined Senator Lott's record," Congressional Black Caucus leaders Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, and Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said in a statement. "It is offensive and morally reprehensible that a public official with such a record would be reinstated to serve as majority leader of the United States Senate."

The Black Caucus said Lott should be formally censured by the Senate. Other Democrats went further. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said he agreed with statements made earlier by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., that "given the tragic history of race relations in this country," Lott should step down as Republican leader.

Lott, who has a 30-year career in the House and the Senate, rose to the position of Senate Republican leader and majority leader in 1996 when Bob Dole quit the Senate to concentrate on his run for the White House. His Senate colleagues re-elected him without opposition last month.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Sava
Personally, I think Daschle is a moron. As a Democratic leader, he doesn't take advantage of the Republicans' political blunders. Even Al Gore seems to be attacking the Republicans on their mistakes more than Daschle.

Edit: BTW, I don't think Bush is a racist, he's too stupid.

Daschle is a decent man, he's just incompetent, yes. If he had just been consistent about it, that would have been better. Instead he changed his tune when the situation became a bit hotter for Lott.

Gore was very quick to denounce Lott's comments, but doesn't seem to be calling for his head on a spit.

[Sava]

Yeah, Daschle made a big mistake going after Limbaugh. Jeez, its not like its a secret that Rush is a dumbf*ck. I don't know why Daschle even wasted his time.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Daschle is a decent man, he's just incompetent, yes. If he had just been consistent about it, that would have been better. Instead he changed his tune when the situation became a bit hotter for Lott.

I've got nothing against Daschle, he's just a boob .

Gore was very quick to denounce Lott's comments, but doesn't seem to be calling for his head on a spit.

Gore is smart enough to recognize that calling for Lott's resignation would be a bad move. Gore's attitude (from what I saw on MSNBC's Hardball) was more like, "Bring the facts to the table and let the people decide".

I haven't really been a Gore fan, but he's definitely saying the right things .

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Daschle is a decent man,

No, he's a weasal. He's just an incompetant weasal.