IN DEFENSE OF TRENT LOTT: Seriously!

Shawn Mercer

[deport]

Nothing to be sorry for. I don't know how this will turnout but maybe with some luck things will die down after the media has its run with it and at some point next year Lott may step down from the leadership role.

[xm177e2]

are you being sarcastic?

Pretty much. If we kicked out all of the segregationists, we'd lose control of Congress. But if they speak up, they should be whacked right back down.

[SerpentDove]

REPUBLICAN SENATE MAJORITY LEADER:
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IS OK
----------
Has Party Backing

I hope everybody likes that soundbite. Because we can "explain" till we're blue in the face, but if we keep defending Lott, we're gonna be hearing it for a lonnnnnnnnnng time.

I say it's not worth losing the whole Republican agenda over him, no matter what other high-minded motives we might have.

Lott expresses regret for remarks; court filing from 1981 surfaces

Can any politician survive this?

From Associated Press (EXCERPT):

"Senate Republican leader Trent Lott tried to help Bob Jones University keep its federal tax-exempt status despite the school's policy prohibiting interracial dating two decades before his recent comments stirred a race controversy.

"Racial discrimination does not always violate public policy," Lott, then a congressman from Mississippi, wrote in a 1981 friend of the court brief that unsuccessfully urged the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the Internal Revenue Service from stripping the university's tax exemption.

IMHO, SD

[puroresu]

When did Lott say racial discrimination was okay? If you're talking about the Bob Jones situation, that was explained to you in another thread.

The issue there was whether the government could punish a private religious school by forcing them to pay taxes unless they agree to permit interracial dating. The students attending that school did not morally believe in interracial dating, including the black students there.

Religion is itself discriminatory. I can't be a rabbi since I'm not Jewish. Should I accuse synagogues of discrimination and demand that the IRS revoke their tax exemption?

[winin2000]

"Racial discrimination does not always violate public policy," Lott, then a congressman from Mississippi, wrote in a 1981 friend of the court brief that unsuccessfully urged the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the Internal Revenue Service from stripping the university's tax exemption.

Lest you think you're about to burn your hands on that "smoking gun," it might interest you to know that this case had the support of ... the Reagan administration.

Aww, what the hell, let's throw the Gipper overboard while we're at it!

[illbenice]

This whole flap seems to be over segregation. So maybe someone will tell me what is wrong with a private business deciding who can enter the business? Do conservatives only like freedom of association when it politically convenient?

[fabian]

I don't believe Lott had segregationist policy on his mind by saying he supported Thurmond for president. He was speaking about the good issues he stood for, I think not realizing the super-sensitivity of liberal black "leaders."

[puroresu]

It is simply a fact that "racial discrimination does not always violate public policy".

The problem is that there's a racial double-standard in the enforcement of that principle. The Black Muslims completely exclude other races but they've never been stripped of their tax exemption. And you know what? I agree that they're entitled to have a tax exemption. If their religion forbids race mixing with whites, so be it. It doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother liberals, either, but then they demand that a fundamentalist religious school like Bob Jones U. should have its tax exemption revoked.

Same double standard we see with black churches hosting 'Rat political rallies.

Same double standard we see with the racist Congressional Black Caucus.

Same double standard we see with the demand that historically black colleges should be allowed to remain black, but every other school has to meet a racial quota.

Just more Politically Correct double standards, just like the attack on Lott when the Democrats are up to their rear ends in race baiters, both black and white.

[SerpentDove]

Here's what I was referring to: Pay special attention to the red letters)

REPUBLICAN SENATE MAJORITY LEADER:
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IS OK
----------
Has Party Backing

I hope everybody likes that soundbite. Because we can "explain" till we're blue in the face, but if we keep defending Lott, we're gonna be hearing it for a lonnnnnnnnnng time.

I say it's not worth losing the whole Republican agenda over him, no matter what other high-minded motives we might have.

Lott expresses regret for remarks; court filing from 1981 surfaces

Can any politician survive this?

From Associated Press (EXCERPT):

"Senate Republican leader Trent Lott tried to help Bob Jones University keep its federal tax-exempt status despite the school's policy prohibiting interracial dating two decades before his recent comments stirred a race controversy.

"Racial discrimination does not always violate public policy," Lott, then a congressman from Mississippi, wrote in a 1981 friend of the court brief that unsuccessfully urged the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the Internal Revenue Service from stripping the university's tax exemption.

IMHO, SD

[SerpentDove]

"...this case had the support of ... the Reagan administration.<<

Reagan said racial discrimination is ok? I doubt it.

If you want this soundbite to bite you in the @#$, keep defending Lott.

[F16Fighter]

Dredging up Lott's comments from 1981?? This is absurd.

Why don't we merely dredge up your past life -- I'm sure we can find some idiotic statement or deed that would make you cringe, OR worse yet -- define you as THAT person today.

[Poohbah]

Dredging up Lott's comments from 1981?? This is absurd.

Well, it doesn't look like Lott's significantly changed from 1981 to the present.

Why don't we merely dredge up your past life -- I'm sure we can find some idiotic statement or deed that would make you cringe, OR worse yet -- define you as THAT person today.

Too late. Lott already did it for you.

[SerpentDove]

>>Why don't we merely dredge up your past life -- I'm sure we can find some idiotic statement or deed that would make you cringe, OR worse yet -- define you as
THAT person today.<<

I am not Senate Majority leader.

Plus, what I say or do is not really an issue, because it cannot be used to bludgeon the Replublican Party with over and over, as Lott's statements undoubtedly will.

[MattAMiller]

This whole flap seems to be over segregation. So maybe someone will tell me what is wrong with a private business deciding who can enter the business? Do conservatives only like freedom of association when it politically convenient?

There's more to it than that. We're talking about segregated schools, poll taxes, and lyching.

You do have a point though. A person ought to able to serve who they want to serve. But that's not the platform Thurmond ran on. He thought segregation was just marvelous.

[Texasforever]

There's more to it than that. We're talking about segregated schools, poll taxes, and lyching.

We are also talking about 6 trillion bucks spent on 13% of the population since 1965 and that population is STILL segregated, undereducated and the poorest group in the country. There has to come a point when the simple question of "why?" is asked of that group and "why do they vote 97% democrat”?

[redrock]

"Get bent, I meant every word of it. If you don't like it, I don't care. See you at the next election."

I have never liked Trent Lott....but it would be really nice to have him stand up and say this...or something like it.

C'mon Trent...show some BACKBONE.

What Trent Lott said was just a few nice words to someone who has turned 100 years old...Sheesh!!!!

redrock

[Texasforever]

It really is weird to be defending Trent Lott isn't it. Hell dislike for Lott has been the one issue that FR has always agreed on. This has to be the twilight zone.

[MattAMiller]

We are also talking about 6 trillion bucks spent on 13% of the population since 1965 and that population is STILL segregated, undereducated and the poorest group in the country. There has to come a point when the simple question of "why?" is asked of that group and "why do they vote 97% democrat”?

As things turned out liberals had nothing to gain from integration. So blacks were told "Never mind the issues of intoxication, infedelity, lawlesness, and disrespect for education. All you're problems are caused by whitey. These things are your culture, they define blackness. Any white person who tells you different is a racist. And any black person who tells you different is a race traitor."

This ideaology has had devestating effects on the entire nation and has warped our political dialouge for several decades.

But it doesn't aquit segregationists of anything. In fact they enabled it. They fostered the creation of a disposessed culture within their own borders.

[redrock]

LOL!!!!

Rod Serling will be popping out of the woodwork any minute!!!!

It IS realy weird defending Lott....but..he DIDN"T say anything wrong. He was just being nice....

redrock

[Texasforever]

But it doesn't aquit segregationists of anything. In fact they enabled it. They fostered the creation of a disposessed culture within their own borders.

Total unadulterated BS and that is coming from a son of the south that is not pining for civil war 2.