And I see now Lott has stepped down and won't fight to remain as Majority Leader. I won't cry for him. Merry XMas, cracker boy. This photo says it all ee with most of what he says. I don't think being a racist crackerass renders Lott unfit to lead the Republican party in the Senate - it should give him extra credit. As a white man in the South, I have other white people - usually men - speak to me in code phrases quite often. It's like any situation where someone is trying to figure out the other's membership in a secret organization - whether the Masons or a terrorist cell or a spy ring. "It would have been better if Strom Thurmond was elected President" is a lot like "The neighborhood was better before those people started moving in" or "That part of town is too urban for me."

I hate it when I get this shit. It makes me angry that someone even thinks there is enough chance that I'll be like-minded to begin the "those people" dance with me. Is it common? Sadly, yes. Do many sitting Republican politicians in their heart of hearts think that Lott is really correct? I'll bet many do. Do many Democrats? I'll bet there are enough to be shocking. I think most Republicans who are lining up against Lott really are objecting to is the way he tipped the cards too far. He played the cracker codeword game way too obviously, in a way that gives away that it happens. He's also apologizing in a way that makes it completely obvious it is horseshit. "I have held beliefs in the past that were wrong but I have seen the error of my ways." In other words, "I was a segregationist cracker bigot at the beginning of the month, but now I am not. Like Saul of Tarses becoming the Apostle Paul, I have converted on the road to Damascus." Sorry, Trent, I don't buy that, even if you are saying it while you are dancing on Soul Train. However, in the same way I don't think anything has changed in his worldview, neither has anything changed in the world. He was doing this job as a crackerass before. What's different now? The only thing is that he's out of the closet. As Carroll says, do we really want people lying about what they think?