Aw geez, Trent Lott elected minority whip!

"Gentlemen, how many times must I tell you? I will not be answering any questions about my hair!"


Here's the story in The Hill.

No one dislikes Trent Lott (blowhard Republican Senator from Mississippi) more than I. I'm not really proud of this, but in 2000, in the privacy of the voting booth, I spoke the words "Fuck you, Trent Lott!", quietly to myself, as I pulled the lever for Hillary Clinton. Even so, I always thought he got a bum rap with the Strom Thurmound thing. Call me naive, but in my opinion, the statement that cost him his leadership position, sort of humorously endorsing Strom Thurmond's run for president forty years later (at Thurmond's 100th birthday celebration) wasn't overtly racist, as it has often been characterized. Maybe he was thinking racist thoughts when he said it, but everybody deserves the benefit of the doubt, including Republicans and John Kerry.

On the other hand, check out this recent statement that got practically no attention. Racist? You bet, and that's just for openers. There's about five different ways that this is offensive. It might have gotten more attention if Lott was up for relection this year, if he was still in a position of leadership, or if he hadn't said it the day before the Tom Foley scandal broke.

from CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush barely mentioned the war in Iraq when he met with Republican senators behind closed doors in the Capitol Thursday morning and was not asked about the course of the war, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, said.

"No, none of that," Lott told reporters after the session when asked if the Iraq war was discussed. "You're the only ones who obsess on that. We don't and the real people out in the real world don't for the most part."

Lott went on to say he has difficulty understanding the motivations behind the violence in Iraq.

"It's hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what's wrong with these people," he said. "Why do they kill people of other religions because of religion? Why do they hate the Israelis and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me."

Senator Lott, is it really that far beyond our comprehension? This comes from a Senator from Mississippi, a place where not so very long ago, the hatred of Americans against other Americans was written into the law, and enforced by violence that might as well have been legal, for all the consequences that perptrators had cause to fear. The primary difference between Americans and those crazy Arabs is that our hate was directed against people for not looking the same. Does that really make more sense?


What an American death squad looks like.