I just realized something about Trent Lott...

[Phokus]

Anyone find it ironic that he'll be the 'minority whip' in congress? This made me *LOL* for about an hour

 

[Vaktathi]

Originally posted by: Phokus
Anyone find it ironic that he'll be the 'minority whip' in congress? This made me *LOL* for about an hour

lol

 

[BDawg]

Took me a sec, but yeah, LOL.

 

[miketheidiot]

heh Not bad

 

[daveshel]

apt

 

[ayabe]

I don't think this bodes well for the R party, bringing someone out of the wilderness who left in disgrace to save the day. This is akin to Newt being their savior for '08, do people not remember why he went away in the first place?

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: ayabe
I don't think this bodes well for the R party, bringing someone out of the wilderness who left in disgrace to save the day. This is akin to Newt being their savior for '08, do people not remember why he went away in the first place?

Yeah, I recall his remark and I think he was railroaded for nothing. I think you had to look reeaal hard to find any racism in it. Just the usual double-standard that Repubs face.

In other news... the Dem Senator Robert Byrd, the former KKK clan member, was voted into position as the Senate leader. What? No complaints about that?

Fern

 

[Vaktathi]

Originally posted by: Fern

Originally posted by: ayabe
I don't think this bodes well for the R party, bringing someone out of the wilderness who left in disgrace to save the day. This is akin to Newt being their savior for '08, do people not remember why he went away in the first place?

Yeah, I recall his remark and I think he was railroaded for nothing. I think you had to look reeaal hard to find any racism in it. Just the usual double-standard that Repubs face.

In other news... the Dem Senator Robert Byrd, the former KKK clan member, was voted into position as the Senate leader. What? No complaints about that?

Fern

The comment Lott made by itself wasnt so bad, and under the context I think it may have been taken overboard, BUT, the person he made the comment about ("This country wouldnt have the problems it has today if....had been elected) ran pretty much on the SOLE issue of anti segregation. while it may have just been a comment to a friend with no other meaning than that, it did have some...charged undertones.

 

[International Machine Consortium]

Not so bad.... He's a freaking racist. Stop denying it. Unless you're down in Dixie, then I realize that's impossible.

 

[International Machine Consortium]

Originally posted by: Fern

Originally posted by: ayabe
I don't think this bodes well for the R party, bringing someone out of the wilderness who left in disgrace to save the day. This is akin to Newt being their savior for '08, do people not remember why he went away in the first place?

Yeah, I recall his remark and I think he was railroaded for nothing. I think you had to look reeaal hard to find any racism in it. Just the usual double-standard that Repubs face.

In other news... the Dem Senator Robert Byrd, the former KKK clan member, was voted into position as the Senate leader. What? No complaints about that?

Fern

Awww, he's only president pro tempore! Don't feel bad. :laugh:

 

[ayabe]

Originally posted by: Fern

Originally posted by: ayabe
I don't think this bodes well for the R party, bringing someone out of the wilderness who left in disgrace to save the day. This is akin to Newt being their savior for '08, do people not remember why he went away in the first place?

Yeah, I recall his remark and I think he was railroaded for nothing. I think you had to look reeaal hard to find any racism in it. Just the usual double-standard that Repubs face.

In other news... the Dem Senator Robert Byrd, the former KKK clan member, was voted into position as the Senate leader. What? No complaints about that?

Fern

Nice FNC trump card.

I can't defend Byrd for being in the KKK, but he I guess he has grown as a person and flip flopped on hating black people. I could care less about him, the people of WV keep voting him in, same with Lott, it's their choice. The D leadership tried to stomp out Lieberman but the people decide who's going to represent them.

If you want to blame someone for railroading Lott, blame the leadership of your party, they forced him to step down. Lott was the face of his party in the Senate, Byrd is not, that's the difference. If the situation were reversed in today's climate I'm sure the D's would have made him step down as well.


Edit - Here are some quotes from right after he made the statement:

Sen. Charles Hagel (R-NE) said the remark was a ?dumb statement? that ?raises questions about his judgment.?

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Lott needed to ?proactively send a message to his colleagues in the Senate and the American people that he is absolutely opposed to any segregation in any form and racism in any form and discrimination in any form.?


**********************************************************
but they've apparently forgiven him:

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX):

HOST: In that closed room, did anyone mention specifically the Strom Thurman birthday party incident that led to?

CORNYN: It didn?t come up.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME):

We understand what happened. There?s no point going over. It?s in the past now, you know, and he has expressed, you know, his deep regret, as he should.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ):

I think most people think he paid a pretty heavy price for the mistake that he made. We all believe in redemption, thank God.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE):

Everyone has an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves if they want to do it, and I admire Trent Lott for coming back and offering himself. The conference spoke, and we go forward.

Link

So again, his own party railroaded him to protect themselves.

 

[308nato]

I don't know, recruiting for the Klan seems like a more racist activity but that is just my opinion.

 

[Uhtrinity]

Like I said a week ago, both sides have internal power struggles, they always have and always will. To the Republicans: If that is all you can complain about now, that is pretty sad as both sides do it.

As to the OP, ROFL!!!!!

That is good humor, if it was about a Racist Democrat it would still be as funny!!

 

[Thump553]

The democratic leadership did NOT try to stomp out Lieberman. The anti-Lieberman forces was a grass root effort by voters in CT that were sick to death of Lieberman's nonrepresentation of this state. Unfortunately, the people have a tough time standing up against both big-time GOP funding and union aid, both of which Lieberman had in spades.

As for thinking Lott got forced out for a nothing remark, I beg to differ. Comments like that show how far we still have to go in this country.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Oh yeah, Trent Lott . . the Man with a Plan from the Klan.

Go GOP Leadership! - they really paid attention to how America voted.

 

[Jhhnn]

As I pointed out in another thread, Lott says a lot of stuff to soothe his good ol' boy base- I wouldn't put any faith in whether or not he believes it himself.

It wasn't the Dems who ousted Lott, anyway, but Repubs themselves. The whole bit wrt Strom was merely an excuse to install the Neocons' boy in his place. Lott was too independent, and a politician rather than an ideologue. So he had to go- he'd exhibited some honest bipartisan tendencies in the past, and couldn't be trusted to slam it down the Dems' throats...

With the choice of Lott, Repubs get to pander to their base and distance themselves from the Admin at the same time- What could be better than that, under the circumstances?

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

The whole Trent Lott thing was blown so far out of proportion it's almost laughable. He made a comment in the context of R vs D and the press managed to twist it into a racist comment. Meanwhile, Harry Reid says that he and Nevada Senator Ensign are close but not Brokeback close and not so much as a peep out of anyone.

Selective outrage FTL.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
The whole Trent Lott thing was blown so far out of proportion it's almost laughable. He made a comment in the context of R vs D and the press managed to twist it into a racist comment. Meanwhile, Harry Reid says that he and Nevada Senator Ensign are close but not Brokeback close and not so much as a peep out of anyone.

Selective outrage FTL.

Everyone is iching to label anyone a racist these days it seems.......

I can assure you that Trent Lott has never been to any of the meetings

 

[2Xtreme21]

Haha Jon Stewart just said this.

 

[eits]

minority whip

 

[Mill]

It is a sad shame that him and that idiot Byrd haven't been voted out.

 

[Craig234]

Uh, Byrd's not an idiot. Byrd was a member of the KKK several decades ago in a place as a young man in a different culture - there needs to be room for people to change and get past mistakes, and Byrd's earned that with decades of service and good votes with a very different, positive view of minorities.

The fact that he's one of the most eloquent and informed Senators would not outweigh if he were still racist, but that's not the case.

 

[eits]

Originally posted by: Craig234
Uh, Byrd's not an idiot. Byrd was a member of the KKK several decades ago in a place as a young man in a different culture - there needs to be room for people to change and get past mistakes, and Byrd's earned that with decades of service and good votes with a very different, positive view of minorities.

The fact that he's one of the most eloquent and informed Senators would not outweigh if he were still racist, but that's not the case.

i kinda gotta agree with him on this one...

but, yeah, mill, it's a shame lott's still around... but he's from mississippi... it's not like they'd ever vote for a woman, minority, or non-christian for anything.

 

[raildogg]

Originally posted by: eits

Originally posted by: Craig234
Uh, Byrd's not an idiot. Byrd was a member of the KKK several decades ago in a place as a young man in a different culture - there needs to be room for people to change and get past mistakes, and Byrd's earned that with decades of service and good votes with a very different, positive view of minorities.

The fact that he's one of the most eloquent and informed Senators would not outweigh if he were still racist, but that's not the case.

i kinda gotta agree with him on this one...

but, yeah, mill, it's a shame lott's still around... but he's from mississippi... it's not like they'd ever vote for a woman, minority, or non-christian for anything.

Why do you say this? It is not like all people think this way, but I'm sure a lot probably do. Mississippi and other southern states have a lot of work to do, but so does rest of America. Also, Lott has been staying under the radar for a while now - or it appears that way.

Mississippi has a large African-American population and if they are energized to vote, they can make a big impact. But the problem is that the black populations in America are being ignored and black leaders are getting ineffective and they have been ineffective. Maybe it is designed to be this way; to keep people down. I guess making negative remarks like this will play right into the hands of people who are looking for excuses for keeping themselves and others down.

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: Craig234
Uh, Byrd's not an idiot. Byrd was a member of the KKK several decades ago in a place as a young man in a different culture - there needs to be room for people to change and get past mistakes, and Byrd's earned that with decades of service and good votes with a very different, positive view of minorities.

The fact that he's one of the most eloquent and informed Senators would not outweigh if he were still racist, but that's not the case.

You are acting as if Byrd was just accidentally a member for a few months. He was voted the local leader of his KKK chapter, and he led the filibuster of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Sure, people can change. However, should it take 47 years (his age when he filibustered the Civil Rights Act) to realize you were making a mistake? It seems like Byrd changed when the times changed which seems awfully politically expedient to me. Why would it take a brilliant man, involved in the government, 47 years since his birth to come to the conclusion that racial bigotry is silly and wrong? That doesn't really sound that progressive to me.

So, I guess you are right. Idiot is a poor choice of words. Manipulator would have been a better characterization. The world changed and he changed with it.