Lott Must GO (NY POST Editorial)

NY Post ^ | 12-14-02 | NY Post Editors

[dogbyte12]

December 14, 2002 -- Sen. Trent Lott still doesn't get it.

Yesterday he offered up yet another dose of contrition for the inanity he pronounced a week ago.

But it won't fly.

"I want to say this about my state," Lott said. "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

[dogbyte12]

NY Post is not exactly Pravda. The NY Post, National Review, Opinion Review, Bennett, Charen, Noonan, Krauthammer, and the list keeps growing.

[dogbyte12]

</center> Any predictions? I say... Thursday next week.

[f.Christian]

Otherwise, the stain on Trent Lott will taint his party - and the country, too.




too funny!

[Peach]

The Post has it wrong. The moral hypocrisy of the Left is moving this forward. They said nothing when Clinton awarded Fulbright the Presidential Medal of Honor for crying out loud. To bestow that honor on an avowed racist was okay for a Democrat, I guess. You've probably seen my editorial printed in the Washington Times today, but I've reposted it below. (BTW, I sent it to other major media outlets, but they won't dare use it because it exposes their own hypocrisy).

While not a fan of Trent Lott, I feel compelled to respond to the selective outrage regarding his comments at Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday. On May 5, 1993, the Washington Post quoted former President Clinton’s comments at an 88th birthday ceremony for former Arkansas Senator William Fulbright where Clinton bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the man he described as a “visionary humanitarian, a steadfast supporter of the values of education, and my mentor."

Of course, the man Clinton was praising was a rabid segregationist. In 1956, Fulbright was one of 19 senators who issued a statement entitled the "Southern Manifesto." This document condemned the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Its signers stated, among other things, that "We commend the motives of those States which have declared the intention to resist forced integration by any lawful means."

Fulbright later voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He voted against the 1965 Voting Rights Act. And he did so because he was a segregationist and believed in separating the races — in schools and other public places.

More recently, in October 2002, Clinton traveled to Arkansas to dedicate a 7 foot bronze statute to Fulbright, and still nothing from the press admonishing Clinton for honoring a racist.

I'm not making excuses for Trent Lott. He should have apologized for his insensitive comments, and he did. Nor am I making excuses for Strom Thurmond's past. I'm questioning the hypocrisy of selective moral outrage by the Left.

[Grut]

There is a contingent here at FR that wants to defend Lott come hell or high water, simply to deny the Dems a win. This is exactly what the Democrats did with Clinton. It's not just dishonest, it's childishly dishonest.

[yoe]

The New York Post Championed the likes of Bill Clinton for TEN long years from the time he was the sex driven governor of Arkansas! They held up the leader of this nation as a misunderstood “boyish” fellow. That rag has no creditability left and they know it!

Trent Lott should not resign over this blown out of portion remark that was NEVER meant the way it is being reported and tossed about by the pundits and others.

[RAT Patrol]

I love the NYPost and everything, but they also dumped Bush for McCain in the 2000 primaries.

Lott will have to go because too many people are against him AND because he was incredibly stupid to say what he said. I just think it is unfair to ruin the guy over a mistake.

[dogbyte12]

He should have apologized for his insensitive comments, and he did.

If that is exactly what he did, Lott wouldn't be in so much trouble. Let's review.

First he gets a PR flack to do a two sentence statement, that basically says to those who were offended... "go get Bent"
Then, when that doesn't work, he does his own written statement that basically says... "I am sorry you are an idiot who doesn't understand what I meant"
That didn't fly, so he went on Hannity and apologized half-heartedly.

What he should have done is what Torie suggested in another thread... quoting Torie:

That is why Lott needed to make a forceful speech that, after pondering it, he finally and all too tardily understands differently, and that that segregation and Jim Crow were evil, and why he thinks that regime was evil, and why he thinks Mississippi is so much better off now that it is gone, and how wrong he was to ever at any time to have supported it, and how much he admires the courage and self sacrifice of those who caused it to end, and that many of the votes and comments he made in the past he now wishes he could take back, because they conveyed precisely the opposite message.

Lott for some reason is unable to do that. He can not say that his views in the past were wrong. He says now... finally that segregation is wrong... but a thief can say stealing is wrong, but that is the easy part.

Lott genuinely needs to explain how he feels. What happened in the 60's when he was leading his frat against integration. How did he feel when the civil rights workers were murdered. How his position evolved. What made them evolve. I think the country would be very forgiving, if Trent Lott truly has repented, and he opens up his heart.

Fat chance on that happening though.

[alnick]

There is a contingent here at FR that wants to defend Lott come hell or high water, simply to deny the Dems a win. This is exactly what the Democrats did with Clinton. It's not just dishonest, it's childishly dishonest.

You are absolultely correct. Yes, the 'rats are piling on and their motives are not pure. That does not mean that we should automatically take the opposite side than the democrats on this issue. We should do the right thing, regardless of what the 'rats say or do or what their motives are.

[Peach]

I'm not excusing Lott. Don't like him, never did. But the hypocrisy of the entire matter is more than I can stand. Neither the DNC, Black Caucus nor the media jumped on Clinton when he awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor to Fulbright, an avowed racist and segregationist. Clinton called the man his mentor. And no one saw anything wrong with that picture?

[BuddhaBoy]

I still say tomorrow.

[Iron Eagle]

There is a contingent here at FR that wants to defend Lott come hell or high water ...

You are so right. Lott was a poor leader before, and this debacle hurts him and all republicans. Frankly, I resent having to be put in a position to defend this guy. Of course its a Democratic double standard, of course the dems are the party of hate, fear, and personal destruction.

The only issue here, however, is what is best for the Country. What's best for the Country is a strong, unified, Conservative Republican Majority that is free to win the battle of ideas and principles without being forced to defend its idiots. Lott should have the class and foresight to step down from the leadership right now.

That FR mindset that wants to fight this to the death is wrong. Lott is not worth fighting for. We are the party of personal responsibility. Let Lott take responsibility for being an idiot. As for granting the dems a win, they don't want Lott out. Its much better to keep him as the face of the Senate Republicans. When Lott goes, we should put a younger, smarter, more conservative senator up to lead. Someone with a backbone and a sense of political savvy.

Unfortunately, this club of isolated fools in the Senate will put forward some other senior Senator who is completely out of touch. We should be thinking young, smart, vibrant, and unimpeachable in character -- and very conservative.

How about Frist or Santorium?

[Wait4Truth]

He needs to step down as Majority Leader. I have felt that way from the start. If he does not, his face WILL be the face of the Repbublican-led Senate. He must be asked to step down. His tepid apologies have not worked for me. He doesn't get it. He just doesn't. He was a weak leader before this happened - now he is just plain ineffective.

[John Lenin]

Why not let the Senators in his own party decide. It's two years till the next election, lots can happen. The FR over-reaction is astounding. So far it is mostly RINOS and neo-cons calling for Lott to resign. Lets ask the GOP base, the southern voter, what they think.

[Wait4Truth]

My vote goes to Bill Frist. He would be a great Senate leader. Fox just reporting Lott still refuses to step down. What a fool.

[ex-Texan]

Lott must go ! < /shouting!!)

I do not think it benefits GWB or the Republican Party to allow Lott to issue blackmail declarations and threats to resign from the Senate rather than give up Leadership. If GWB caves in, it sends the wrong message to the American people. The message it sends is that an over-the-hill twerp of questionable morals and proven bad judgment can dictate to the President of the United States. It also shows that a practicing moron from the deep, deep Old South can dictate terms to GWB.

There is also the issue of Lott still being subject to the old Clinton and Barney Frank blackmail plot they used to pressure Lott during the Impeachment Trial of the Traitor in Chief. What's a little blackmail among brothers sitting in the Senate? Blackmail is just how we do business in the United States Senate. ("Time to move on now, nothing to see here, this is all old news")

The corrution must stop! It is time the remove, expunge, and stamp out the mere possibilty of blackmail from the Senate forever.

GWB should tell Lott to blow it out his @ss, and let him resign. It is time to make a moral choice and to stand up with courage. To cave in to Lott now, is a choice to accept blackmail as legitimate. If GWB allows Lott to threaten him, and simply walk away, I will never support GWB again. Having worked very hard to get him elected two years ago, I will not only refuse to vote for him, I will work to have him defeated by supporting a minority party.

Now is the time for true leadership! Not a time for testing the wind to see which way it is blowing.

Sorry. That is just how I feel. Feel free to flame away.

[John Lenin]

Hey, it's energized the Sharpton run for the presidency, is this as bad as you think it is ?

[winin2000]

Could it be that it took Lott so long because he's never been forced to truly confront the horror of the Jim Crow laws of his youth?

A curious challenge to a lifelong resident of Mississippi from someone almost assuredly not a Southerner at all.

I hope this is becoming abundantly clear to fellow Freepers; specifically the Southern Freepers:

This is no longer about Trent Lott. This is about the South!

This columnist just with a stroke of his keyboard declared that anyone who has the remotest hint of affection for the South as it historically existed is not fit to be in elected leadership in the United States.

Friends, the South is my home. Your home is like your family: you don't love it because it's objectively better, you love it simply because it's yours; warts and all!

All but the most fringe loonies among the chattering class know goddamned well Trent Lott is not in favor of lynching and reviving Jim Crow. The immorality of that aspect of our history is clear today to any decent person. We lived, we learned, and we moved on. But the legacy of that system is an intense and ongoing political rivalry between blacks and whites in the South.

Racial/cultural frictions between coexisting populations are an inexplicable and worldwide phenomenon. It's in our bones, it's what we do, have done, and will continue to do. Lott's careless comments are merely a reflection of that.

If Lott is unfit for the U.S. Senate, so is about two thirds of the white South. We are basically being told that any Southern white who doesn't spend the rest of his life agonizing over the sins of ages ago and hating himself over perfectly normal instincts, does not deserve representation in government.

That is what is at stake here. And I couldn't care less if every fairweather conservative in print or on cable TV calls for Lott's head, they're getting nothing but my middle finger!

[rightswarrior]

TL should have gone a LONGGGGGGG time ago. He is the most weak-kneed, spineless, gutless leader I have ever seen. The only person less qualified to be the Republican leader is Jumpin Jim!!

[rightswarrior]

This is not about the south, I am a born and bred southerner. This is about TL being a spineless leader LONG before this stuff happened. This is about a weak power hungry idiot that falls over and pees on himself like a puppy every time the Libs say Boo to him.