<"I want to tell you, ladies and gentleman, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the southern people to break down segregation and admit the Nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches."

Not all of us were here in 1948.

This is what Trent Lott was talking about. He brought it up. It's important that "all these problems" be decoded for younger people who don't have the history to understand it.

Your analogy equating a black voter and a white segregationist with preschoolers, one a bedwetter and the other a bully, and the Democratic party with the adult authority figure in the room says more about your opinion of black voters and white segregationists than I ever could.

These type of quotes are used by the left to rehumiliate, isolate and demean blacks - and do so very safely from behind Strom Thurmond's 1948 political viewpoints.

Strom Thurmond's 1948 political viewpoints were raised by one of his supporters, apparently where he thought it was "safe" to do so. How dare some of his political opponents point out precisely what he was supporting!

If Trent Lott had not opened this can of worms, there would be a lot fewer worms abroad in Republicanland today. Spin all you want. The worms will be dizzy, but they will still be worms.

I hear he's apologized. Good.

I hear Sen. Daschle has come down on the concilliatory side, sypathizing with Sen. Lott's bout of neurological flatulence as something from which he's suffered himself. Where are the voices praising him for his restraint?

And if these quotes are so very demeaning to black citizens, so that the mere memory of them, regardless of context, is painful and debilitating, I never expect to see another reference to Sen. Byrd's Klan roots again. Unless, of course, this really is a spin exercise and party advantage is your real game.

I expect it is.

Regards--
Mary Anne