This is getting embarrassing. You know you’re in big trouble when your main supporters are Sean Hannity and Pat Buchanan. I discussed this whole thing with David the other night, and my point was: It doesn’t MATTER what Trent Lott’s views are. It’s a free country. You can sit around and bemoan desegregation all you want. You can fear for the future of the glorious white race. You can hold any number of repugnant views. But free speech does not come without consequences, first of all. Second of all, if you are the leader of one of the political parties in this country, then the rules definitely are different for you. He’s not just your average-Joe citizen, sitting on his porch, spewing his stupid opinions into the air.
Trent Lott needs some acting training. An acting coach to say, “Okay, so…are you working on sincerity in that moment? True remorse? Because if you are, I’m not getting it…Let’s do an animal exercise to try to get you more relaxed.” Ah, the thought amuses me.
Andrew Sullivan responds to the latest apology from the Lott corner.
His “apology” was formulaic, cheery, rote and unpersuasive. I still don’t think he acknowledges the gravity of what he said over a week ago. I don’t think he understands the central place of the civil rights movement in the construction of this country’s modern existence. I don’t think he even faintly fits into a Party of Lincoln. His pugnacious tone, his craven invocation of his working class past as somehow something that innoculates him from criticism, his lack of solemness, his grinning and laughing in the question and answer session indicates to me that he still doesn’t get it – and he never will.
