Lott's 'Tribute" to Strom Thurmond -- Is this what the Republicans stand for -- I doubt it for Lincolns memory sake

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Jim Larus <larus () microsoft com>
Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2002 16:10:00 -0800
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Lott's 'Tribute" to Strom Thurmond

Dave,
    I couldn't believe this when I got it via email, but it is on
the Washington Post website
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20730-2002Dec6.html).

/Jim
Jim Larus
Microsoft Research


Lott Decried For Part Of Salute to Thurmond
GOP Senate Leader Hails Colleague's Run As Segregationist
 
 
By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 7, 2002; Page A06


Senate Republican leader Trent Lott of Mississippi has provoked
criticism by saying the United States would have been better off if
then-segregationist candidate Strom Thurmond had won the presidency in
1948.

Speaking Thursday at a 100th birthday party and retirement celebration
for Sen. Thurmond (R-S.C.) in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Lott
said, "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for
president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the
country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems
over all these years, either."

Thurmond, then governor of South Carolina, was the presidential nominee
of the breakaway Dixiecrat Party in 1948. He carried Mississippi,
Alabama, Louisiana and his home state. He declared during his campaign
against Democrat Harry S. Truman, who supported civil rights
legislation, and Republican Thomas Dewey: "All the laws of Washington
and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes,
our schools, our churches."

On July 17, 1948, delegates from 13 southern states gathered in
Birmingham to nominate Thurmond and adopt a platform that said in part,
"We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of
each race."

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a leader of the civil rights movement in the
1960s, said yesterday he was stunned by Lott's comments, which were
broadcast live by C-SPAN. "I could not believe he was saying what he
said," Lewis said. In 1948, he said, Thurmond "was one of the best-known
segregationists. Is Lott saying the country should have voted to
continue segregation, for segregated schools, 'white' and 'colored'
restrooms? . . . That is what Strom Thurmond stood for in 1948."

William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, said "Oh,
God," when he learned of Lott's comments. "It's ludicrous. He should
remember it's the party of Lincoln," referring to Lott's role as
Republican leader of the Senate, which the GOP will control when the new
Congress convenes next month.

Lott's office played down the significance of the senator's remarks.
Spokesman Ron Bonjean issued a two-sentence statement: "Senator Lott's
remarks were intended to pay tribute to a remarkable man who led a
remarkable life. To read anything more into these comments is wrong."

Bonjean declined to explain what Lott meant when he said the country
would not have had "all these problems" if the rest of the nation had
followed Mississippi's lead and elected Thurmond in 1948.

Lott's comments came in the middle of Thursday's celebration for
Thurmond, Congress's oldest and longest-serving member. Lott followed at
the lectern former Senate majority leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan).
Initially Lott made jokes about Dole and then became serious when
discussing how Mississippi voted in 1948.

The gathering, which included many Thurmond family members and past and
present staffers, applauded Lott when he said "we're proud" of the 1948
vote. But when he said "we wouldn't have had all these problems over all
these years" if Thurmond had won, there was an audible gasp and general
silence.

In 1998 and 1999, Lott was criticized after disclosures that he had been
a speaker at meetings of the Council of Conservative Citizens, an
organization formed to succeed the segregationist white Citizens'
Councils of the 1960s. In a 1992 speech in Greenwood, Miss., Lott told
CCC members: "The people in this room stand for the right principles and
the right philosophy. Let's take it in the right direction, and our
children will be the beneficiaries."

Asked to comment on Lott's remarks at the Thurmond celebration, Gordon
Baum, CEO of the Council of Conservative Citizens, said "God bless Trent
Lott."


(c) 2002 The Washington Post Company


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