YOU, AND YOUR RACIST SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Here's Trent Lott, on the occasion of ex-segregationist Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday: "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."
This really says something about Lott. Not only does he feel America would be better off if segregation had never ended, but he also lives in a world in which describing advances made by black people as "all these problems" isn't thought for a second to be a controversial statement. And he can't use Rick Kahn's excuse that he made his ridiculous comments "in the heat of passion and grief." To their credit, a majority of the audience (including several supporters of Lott and members of Thurmond's family) let out an audible gasp upon hearing his comments.
I'll be very disappointed in President Bush if he doesn't immediately call for Lott's resignation as Majority Leader. I mean, we're really in Al Campanis/Marge Scott/John Rocker territory here.
And in other Southern political news, America's sexiest senator, Democrat Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, was re-elected in a special runoff election on Saturday.