ShiningIce
3rd Level Green Feather
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2002
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And people wonder why I hate right-wingers. 😡
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republican leader Trent Lott said Wednesday he made a "mistake of the head and not of the heart" when making comments that have clouded his future and further strained relations between the GOP and blacks.
"The words were terrible and I regret that," Lott, R-Miss.
In remarks last Thursday at a birthday party for 100-year-old Sen. Strom Thurmond (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., Lott suggested the country would have been better off if Thurmond, running for president on a pro-segregationist ticket in 1948, had won.
Lott, backed by fellow Republicans, urged people to accept his apology so "we will be able to move on to other issues."
Democrats said Lott, who spoke to conservative radio host Sean Hannity in an interview televised on Fox News, had failed to satisfy questions about whether he was qualified to lead the Senate and about his party's policies toward minorities.
"My guess is that uneasiness that many Republicans are feeling about Lott becoming the majority leader will become more pronounced in the wake of this interview," former Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) said.
Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (news - web sites), said it was a time to bring Americans together. "I'm not sure, in spite of what the senator just said to us today, that he understands that, that he has the commitment to do that," she told Fox after Lott's interview.
"I simply do not believe the country can today afford to have someone who has made these statements again and again be the leader of the United States Senate," said Sen. John Kerry (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., one of several potential 2004 presidential candidates to weigh in against Lott.
No Republican senator has called for Lott to step down as majority leader, the post he is to take over next month. GOP aides generally agreed that Lott would survive with his job intact once he made a public apology.
"The words were wrong, inappropriate, but his track record is one which is very aggressively committed to fairness in our society," said Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record), R-N.H.
Retiring Sen. Jesse Helms (news, bio, voting record), R-N.C., interviewed by The Associated Press in Raleigh, said, "I resent personally the efforts to try to sling mud at Trent Lott because he was trying to praise Strom Thurmond. He may have chose a word that was that was too vulnerable to his critics. And they leap on it like a puppy dog on a biscuit."
White House officials said they were still debating whether to weigh in on the matter.
Republicans outside the White House said they were looking for a signal of support or discontent from President Bush (news - web sites), his staff or the Bush-controlled Republican National Committee (news - web sites). Such a sign could seal Lott's fate.
But one Republican party activist said he had spoken to two conservative GOP senators "and they're nervous. It might be serious ... Democrats will mention this every day in the South until the 2004 Election Day."
Lott, at Thurmond's birthday event, said Mississippians were proud to have voted for Thurmond for president in 1948. "And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."
At first, Lott tried to deflect criticism, saying his speech was only meant to be lighthearted praise of the retiring Thurmond. He later apologized that "a poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past. Nothing could be further from the truth."
But the Jackson Clarion-Ledger in Mississippi reported Wednesday that Lott made a very similar statement when he appeared with Thurmond at a rally in Jackson, Miss., on Nov. 2, 1980. After Thurmond spoke against federal pre-emption of state laws, Lott said, "You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today."
Lott, in his interview Wednesday, listed his own efforts to open opportunities for minorities in such areas as community renewal and education spending. The policies of 1948 "were wrong then, they've been repudiated, we've moved so far beyond that," he said.
Democratic organizer Donna Brazile, who is black, said Lott had "opened up old wounds." Democratic presidential candidates, to secure the black votes they need to win, "have to condemn those statements and show where they stand," she said.
In addition to Kerry and Gore, who may make another run in 2004, Sen. Joe Lieberman (news - web sites), D-Conn., another possible contender, issued a statement saying Bush must speak out more clearly to deny "these harmful words."
Added Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has already announced his candidacy for 2004: "It will be very hard for George Bush to talk to any African-Americans about why they should support the Republican Party with a leader in the Senate who believes in the segregationist policies of the 1950s and 1960s."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites), for the second day in a row, declined Wednesday to directly criticize Lott or his statement.
"America is a much richer and better nation as a result of the changes that have been made to our society involving integration and improvement of relations between races," Fleischer said. "The president is grateful for that effort."
Black groups, including the NAACP, have said Lott should step down as Republican leader.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republican leader Trent Lott said Wednesday he made a "mistake of the head and not of the heart" when making comments that have clouded his future and further strained relations between the GOP and blacks.
"The words were terrible and I regret that," Lott, R-Miss.
In remarks last Thursday at a birthday party for 100-year-old Sen. Strom Thurmond (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., Lott suggested the country would have been better off if Thurmond, running for president on a pro-segregationist ticket in 1948, had won.
Lott, backed by fellow Republicans, urged people to accept his apology so "we will be able to move on to other issues."
Democrats said Lott, who spoke to conservative radio host Sean Hannity in an interview televised on Fox News, had failed to satisfy questions about whether he was qualified to lead the Senate and about his party's policies toward minorities.
"My guess is that uneasiness that many Republicans are feeling about Lott becoming the majority leader will become more pronounced in the wake of this interview," former Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) said.
Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (news - web sites), said it was a time to bring Americans together. "I'm not sure, in spite of what the senator just said to us today, that he understands that, that he has the commitment to do that," she told Fox after Lott's interview.
"I simply do not believe the country can today afford to have someone who has made these statements again and again be the leader of the United States Senate," said Sen. John Kerry (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., one of several potential 2004 presidential candidates to weigh in against Lott.
No Republican senator has called for Lott to step down as majority leader, the post he is to take over next month. GOP aides generally agreed that Lott would survive with his job intact once he made a public apology.
"The words were wrong, inappropriate, but his track record is one which is very aggressively committed to fairness in our society," said Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record), R-N.H.
Retiring Sen. Jesse Helms (news, bio, voting record), R-N.C., interviewed by The Associated Press in Raleigh, said, "I resent personally the efforts to try to sling mud at Trent Lott because he was trying to praise Strom Thurmond. He may have chose a word that was that was too vulnerable to his critics. And they leap on it like a puppy dog on a biscuit."
White House officials said they were still debating whether to weigh in on the matter.
Republicans outside the White House said they were looking for a signal of support or discontent from President Bush (news - web sites), his staff or the Bush-controlled Republican National Committee (news - web sites). Such a sign could seal Lott's fate.
But one Republican party activist said he had spoken to two conservative GOP senators "and they're nervous. It might be serious ... Democrats will mention this every day in the South until the 2004 Election Day."
Lott, at Thurmond's birthday event, said Mississippians were proud to have voted for Thurmond for president in 1948. "And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."
At first, Lott tried to deflect criticism, saying his speech was only meant to be lighthearted praise of the retiring Thurmond. He later apologized that "a poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past. Nothing could be further from the truth."
But the Jackson Clarion-Ledger in Mississippi reported Wednesday that Lott made a very similar statement when he appeared with Thurmond at a rally in Jackson, Miss., on Nov. 2, 1980. After Thurmond spoke against federal pre-emption of state laws, Lott said, "You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today."
Lott, in his interview Wednesday, listed his own efforts to open opportunities for minorities in such areas as community renewal and education spending. The policies of 1948 "were wrong then, they've been repudiated, we've moved so far beyond that," he said.
Democratic organizer Donna Brazile, who is black, said Lott had "opened up old wounds." Democratic presidential candidates, to secure the black votes they need to win, "have to condemn those statements and show where they stand," she said.
In addition to Kerry and Gore, who may make another run in 2004, Sen. Joe Lieberman (news - web sites), D-Conn., another possible contender, issued a statement saying Bush must speak out more clearly to deny "these harmful words."
Added Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has already announced his candidacy for 2004: "It will be very hard for George Bush to talk to any African-Americans about why they should support the Republican Party with a leader in the Senate who believes in the segregationist policies of the 1950s and 1960s."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites), for the second day in a row, declined Wednesday to directly criticize Lott or his statement.
"America is a much richer and better nation as a result of the changes that have been made to our society involving integration and improvement of relations between races," Fleischer said. "The president is grateful for that effort."
Black groups, including the NAACP, have said Lott should step down as Republican leader.
