Posted on 12/11/2002 7:18:22 AM PST by Lance Romance
Lott Apologizes for Thurmond Comments, but Criticism Mounts
Published: Dec 11, 2002
|
|
|
The controversy over comments the Mississippi Republican made at a birthday party last week for 100-year-old Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., comes just weeks before Lott is to return to the position of Senate majority leader with the GOP's takeover of the Senate.
Talking with reporters in Bedford, N.H., Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe said Wednesday that both President Bush and Republican Chairman Marc Racicot should publicly denounce Lott's statement.
"They've been too quiet on this issue," McAuliffe said before a speech to a business group.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Tuesday that Lott "has apologized for his statement, and the president understands that that is the final word from Senator Lott."
Fleischer said Bush thinks Americans should take pride in the "tremendous strides and changes and improvements" that have been made in race relations since 1948. "We were a nation that needed to change," he said.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus led criticism of Lott on Tuesday. Newly elected caucus chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said Lott's comment that the country would have been better off if Thurmond, running for president as a segregationist in 1948, had been elected, "sends a chilling message to all people."
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, an officer of the 39-member caucus, said Lott's words were like a "shocking, if you will piercing, voice through the fabric of black America."
Lott originally characterized his remarks as simply lighthearted praise for Thurmond, who is retiring from the Senate after a record 48 years of service. But he issued an apology Monday night: "A poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I apologize to anyone who was offended by my statement."
Thurmond, then the Democratic governor of South Carolina, ran as a states' rights, pro-segregation Dixiecrat against President Truman and Thomas Dewey in 1948. He received 39 electoral votes from Mississippi and several other southern states.
Lott said Mississippians were proud to have voted for Thurmond, "and if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and NAACP president Kweisi Mfume both demanded that Lott step down as Republican leader. "His remarks are dangerously divisive and certainly unbefitting a man who is to hold such a highly esteemed leadership role," Mfume said.
Ken Connor, president of the conservative Family Research Council, also asked if Republicans should "look to a new Senate leader who is not encumbered by this unnecessary baggage."
Connor said he didn't believe Lott was a racist, but "his thoughtless remarks ... simply reinforce the suspicion that conservatives are closet racists and secret segregationists."
Coming to Lott's defense was the only black Republican in Congress, Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma. Watts, retiring at the end of this session, said he had talked to Lott and was assured that the remarks praising Thurmond were not racially motivated. "We should not trivialize the issue of race for political gain," Watts said.
Black Caucus members also demanded that fellow Democrats not play down the seriousness of the issue. "This is a Democratic Party issue," said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. "It is not enough to simply defend or to explain these kinds of statements and then at election time talk about why black Americans should turn out in large numbers."
Later in the day, several top Democrats issued strong statements against Lott. Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, who on Monday said he accepted Lott's explanation that he never intended his remarks to be interpreted as they were, said that regardless of the intent, "His words were offensive to those who believe in freedom and equality in America."
House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt said that while he believed Lott's apology was genuine, "I am disturbed when anyone, particularly an elected official of Senator Lott's stature, embraces current or past efforts to disenfranchise African-Americans and other minority citizens."
Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, who next month succeeds Gephardt as Democratic leader, said Lott "can apologize all he wants. It doesn't remove the sentiment that escaped his mouth that day."
Who. Terry McAuliffe? Oh yeah, the guy who cost Dems control of the Senate.
I see the whole cast of Democratic poverty pimps have worked on their faux outrage. The statement was benign as well as being said at an old man's birthday party.
Lott was dumb to apologize in the first place, but the media has been whipping up this issue for lack of anything better to shame Republicans with.
Bush should ask privately for him to resign.
It would make a huge point of which is the party with integrity.
And we can get more of a fighter in there leading the Senate.
You are right on point. I have worked for years to get friends and co-workers interested in the Republican Party and Conservative ideals. All kinds too, folks of Color, Liberals, Naturalized Citizens.
When self-absorbed elite career-politicians such as Lott pull a stupid stunt such as this one is helps to piss away my efforts and what ground I manage to gain for our Free Republic. His action not only tarnishes the conservative movement. More importantly it taints President Bush and his administration.
Of course the Rats will play this up and suck on the teat for all it's worth. And they are right to do so. Lott needs to go now, if for no other reason than for being a complete idiot.
Prepare, however, to get flamed for your position on this. I myself already have my fireproof camo-hunting flameproof suit on...
Lott gave the country a glimpse of how former Yellow Dog Democrat southern politicians may joke with each other in private, but as a public policy matter, his views have not only been "discarded," as he too casually said in his apology, but discarded in disgrace.
Lott should resign as Majority Leader. He's a slippery, oily politician who's done a lousy job. If this flap forces him out, so much the better for the Republican Party.
I find it ironic that members of the Congressional Black Caucus would criticize Lott for comments that he made about segregation. The Congressional Black Caucus is a segregationist group within the U.S. Congress.
Take his remarks at face value and that they were said at the birthday party of a 100 year old man.
If he hadn't apologized this story would be over. He made it a story by apologizing.
Don't get me wrong on my view of Lott. He's pusillaminous at best and I would like to see a better conservative at the helm of the Senate.
But if Torricelli was merely reprimanded for his disgraceful behavior and Byrd gets a consistent pass for his background and comments. This should have been a non story somewhere around Sunday.
I beg to differ. I agree that the Dems are just making political hay with the whole mess, but this is what one should expect from them. It was dumb for Lott to say what he said at Thurmond's party. The racist overtones in his remarks are pretty appalling. Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham and Neal Boortz have all said this about the gaff.
Boortz has specifically indicated that Lott should resign as Majority Leader. I agree with Boortz on this one.
My point is that the fact that the media is blowing this thing out of proportion makes it anything but a "dead horse."
Our conservative counter-argument that the Dems and their media lackeys are applying a double standard won't wash even if it's true as stated. Lott's remarks were inexcusable.
It's the sort of mistake a Republican should not make, even if the Dems do. Democrat hostility aside, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard.
Once again, this is at a guy's 100th b-day party and Lott was complimnentary to the old guy.
There is an aspect of the story you may be missing. In the blogosphere --- and increasingly important part of the media --- Lott was being boiled in oil daily. I do not agree that the story would have gone away had he not apologized. He was forced to apologize by the rising number of voices raised against him.
By the way, I don't think it is at all "PC" to recoil in disgust from the Dixiecrat platform of 1948.
So the White House has spoken. I wonder if that will have any effect on all the Lott-bashers here.
And if the Republican Party decides to stonewall the Dems on this, it will make the matter WORSE. It will make the matter WORSE if we resist them for a while--which resistance on our part will cause Blacks and ideological "undecideds" to conclude that we are coddling racism. If we cave in and can Lott after a protracted public debate, it will make the Blacks think they were right in concluding that Republicans are largely racists. Lott's departure would be their victory and our loss.
But it we act swiftly to get rid of Lott as Majority Leader, it's a win-win situation for us. We will surprise a lot of Blacks. We will snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat.
My point is that we need to seize the moral high ground. And the moral high ground is not a matter of griping about the Dems' double standard. It's a matter of cleaning house.
We need to get rid of Trent Lott. (Anyway, he hasn't been all that good as Majority Leader. He's just a nice guy. And there are plenty of other nice Republicans in the Senate.)
Beckett bows deeply while accepting with humilty the plaudits of his vast army of admirers. :-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.