'Splain Something To Me, Trent
December 18, 2002
The Trent Lott controversy continues to grow in intensity. Hardly a wonder given the inept way Lott has handled it. The apology tour continues. What I’m waiting for is the explanation tour.
Lott has apologized to everyone, including an appearance on BET, Black Entertainment Television. There, he not only apologized but compromised. He explained that his voting record on civil rights issues didn’t reflect his actual position. What? If your voting record doesn’t reflect your position, what does?
He admitted that he had been part of the segregation movement in Mississippi but that he was a changed man. He went on to tell BET that he now supports affirmative action in every manner. This was a huge departure from his historic stand on the issue, a stand that he is, apparently, more than willing to compromise in order to save his own skin. Or is it merely his words that he’s willing to compromise.
Two days after the BET interview, he told ABC News that he was still against quotas and set-asides but, in today’s parlance, that’s exactly what affirmative action has become. Little doubt that the interviewer for BET meant that, as well, when he asked if Lott would support affirmative action in any shape, form or fashion. Apparently, Lott thinks he can play his game of semantics and get away with it.
Here’s the problem.
Lott has apologized profusely but has yet to explain exactly what he meant when he praised the segregationist candidacy of Strom Thurmond. Some Lott apologists have made feeble attempts to attach his comments to Thurmond’s strong support for the military. Given that both Truman and Dewey, Thurmond’s 1948 opponents, were both at least as strong, if not stronger, supporters of the military, that excuse doesn’t wash. Thurmond’s sole reason for running in ’48 was because the Democrat party, to which he belonged, had included desegregation in their platform. The only reason for praising Thurmond’s only run for president is to praise his position on segregation. Perhaps that’s why Lott has found it easier to apologize than explain.
Lott has forgotten the first rule of holes. When you’re in one, stop digging. He went on BET to admit that he, in fact, was part of the segregationist movement in Mississippi. Right now, he’s the face of the Republican party in the Senate, the party that will need to do the heavy lifting when it comes to the Bush agenda. Each and every move they make will be filtered through the prism of race as long as he is at the helm. If Republicans want to advance that agenda without getting bogged down in silly sideshows then that face cannot be Trent Lott.
The immolation of Lott is surely a spectacle to see. It is largely a self-inflicted wound with the sharks in the news media smelling blood in the water and ripping their victim to shreds.