From the WSJ Opinion Archives

by JAMES TARANTO
Friday, December 13, 2002 2:57 P.M. EST

Mississippi Toasting
Sen. Trent Lott plans a news conference in Pascagoula, Miss., at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time today. His spokesman, Ron Bonjean, says it is not a resignation announcement, and the Associated Press reports the occasion is yet another apology. This would be No. 3 or 4, depending on which ones you count.

Time reports that four decades ago Lott "helped lead a successful battle to prevent his college fraternity from admitting blacks to any of its chapters":

At a time when racial issues were roiling campuses across the South, some chapters of Sigma Nu fraternity in the Northeast were considering admitting African-American members, a move that would have sent a powerful statement through the tradition-bound world of sororities and fraternities. At the time, Lott was president of the intra-fraternity council at the University of Mississippi. When the issue came to a head at Sigma Nu's national convention--known as a "Grand Chapter"--in the early 1960s, "Trent was one of the strongest leaders in resisting the integration of the national fraternity in any of the chapters," recalls former CNN President Tom Johnson, then a Sigma Nu member at the University of Georgia.

Johnson was also at the convention, and he too voted to keep the frat white. Time reports: "Over the years, as Johnson became a media executive, word would get back to him from time to time that Lott was repeating the tale to mutual acquaintances--to embarrass him, Johnson believes." Now, ironically, it is Time magazine, which like CNN is owned by AOL Time Warner, that is repeating the story--to embarrass Lott, some would argue.

Lott's and Johnson's collegiate activities ought to be excusable after all these years. Both men, after all, were young, and both grew up in a segregationist milieu. What they did was wrong, but they can plausibly say they didn't know better.

In Lott's case, however, the revelation does cast an unflattering light on the explanations he's offered for his retrospective endorsements of Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign. Someone who was an active segregationist while in college can't plead ignorance in a situation like this, so Lott's claim that he was referring to Thurmond's views on defense and the economy are that much more implausible.

The Smoking Gun has reproduced the one-page 1948 platform of Thurmond's States Rights Democratic Party. It mentions not a word about national defense, and the only mention of economics comes in the third plank:

We stand for social and economic justice, which, we believe can be guaranteed to all citizens only by a strict adherence to our Constitution and the avoidance of any invasion or destruction of the constitutional rights of the states and individuals. We oppose the totalitarian, centralized bureaucratic government and the police nation called for by the platforms adopted by the Democratic and Republican Conventions.

Lest there be any doubt what this is all about, plank No. 4 begins: "We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each one." A Jake Tapper piece on Salon led us to another historical document, posted on a Mississippi state Web site: a 1948 sample ballot from the Mississippi Democratic Party (which endorsed the Dixiecrat ticket rather than the national Democratic Party's nominee, Harry Truman). REMEMBER, the document declares:

A vote for Truman electors is a direct order to our Congressmen and Senators from Mississippi to vote for passage of Truman's so-called civil-rights program in the next Congress. This means the vicious FEPC--anti-poll tax--anti-lynching and anti-segregation proposals will become the law of the land and our way of life in the South will be gone forever.

A Political Liability
Even if Lott keeps apologizing until he gets it right, it's hard to see how his staying on in the position of majority leader is anything other than a boon for the Democrats. Liberal Blogger Joshua Micah Marshall sums up the situation nicely:

Right now we're debating whether the Republican Senate Majority Leader is a racist who yearns for the days of segregation or just a good ole boy who says a lot of things that make it seem like he's a racist who yearns for the days of segregation. I think you can say that that's a debate the Democrats are pretty comfortable having.

Bloggers, Marshall foremost among them, were way ahead of the mainstream press in recognizing the importance of this story. But now that it's made the major leagues, things look all the more perilous for the GOP. The New York Times' Adam Clymer weighs in with a "news analysis" headlined "Republican Party's 40 Years of Juggling on Race," making a point that former Enron adviser Paul Krugman sums up:

The Republican Party's longstanding "Southern strategy"--which rests on appealing to the minority of voters who do share Mr. Lott's views--is no secret. But because the majority doesn't share those views, the party must present two faces to the nation. . . .

To win nationally, the leader of the party must pay tribute to the tolerance and open-mindedness of the nation at large. He must celebrate civil rights and sternly condemn the abuses of the past. And that's just what George W. Bush did yesterday, in rebuking Mr. Lott.

Yet at the same time the party must convey to a select group of target voters the message--nudge nudge, wink wink--that it actually doesn't mean any of that nonsense, that it's really on their side. How can it do that? By having men who manifestly don't share the open-mindedness of the nation at large in key, powerful positions. And that's why Mr. Bush's rebuke was not followed by a call for Mr. Lott to step down.

Much of what Krugman says is silly. Since when do presidents publicly demand the ouster of congressional leaders? And there's nothing in President Bush's history that would lead a fair-minded observer to doubt the sincerity of his antisegregation statements. He was raised by a father who, as a young Texas congressman, voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1968, a housing-discrimination measure that was highly unpopular in his district.

There's a grain of truth to Krugman's point about the "Southern strategy," but the notion that Republicans need to appeal to "voters who do share Mr. Lott's views"--by which Krugman means unreconstructed segregationists--is laughably out of date. There were many such voters in 1968, when Richard Nixon employed the Southern strategy, and there may have been enough of them left in 1980 to be an important constituency for Ronald Reagan. But this is 2002, for crying out loud. How many segregationists are still alive who have not softened their views after decades of racial progress?

It's preposterous to suggest in this day and age that a legislative leader with a continuing history of pro-segregationist statements and actions is a political asset for the GOP. The question is whether the Republicans will realize how great a liability he is, and act accordingly.

Incidentally, we get results. On Tuesday we blasted Krugman for lifting ideas from Josh Marshall's blog and not crediting Marshall. Today's column could not be more generous in acknowledging Krugman's debt to Marshall. In his very first paragraph, Krugman quotes Marshall, calls his blog "must reading for the politically curious" and notes that Marshall, "more than anyone else, is responsible for making Trent Lott's offensive remarks the issue they deserve to be."

Hey Josh, you're welcome.

Does This Guy Read His Own Newspaper?

"A Whole Lott of Silence From President Bush"--headline, Derrick Jackson column, Dec. 13

"Bush Scolds Lott on Thurmond Remarks"--headline, news story, Boston Globe, Dec. 13

Miller's Segue
Yesterday we noted that the 108th Congress will include two senators who were once segregationists: Fritz Hollings of South Carolina and Robert Byrd of West Virginia, both Democrats. Reader Steven Allen writes:

You're forgetting Sen. Zell Miller, who was executive secretary to Gov. Lester Maddox of Georgia (1967-71). Maddox became infamous in 1964 when he and his customers, with pick handles and a gun, chased African-Americans from his restaurant, the Pickrick. Other than George Wallace, Maddox was the most famous segregationist governor of the 1960s.

I'm sure one reason Miller isn't inclined to switch parties is that he knows that as a Republican, he would no longer be given a pass over his "seg" past.

Dixiecrats and Double Standards: A Response
National Review Online's Mark Levin has penned an answer to our items Wednesday and yesterday, in which we criticized his NRO pieces accusing Lott critics of a double standard. (Levin's original pieces are here and here.) We've also posted the speech by Sen. Carl Levin that was the subject of Mark Levin's second article.

Meanwhile, in the Really Deep South . . .
"Most South Africans, both black and white, believe the country was better run under apartheid," Reuters reports, citing the results of a new poll:

[The surveys] revealed a growing sense of "apartheid nostalgia" as South Africa grapples with high crime rates, increasing corruption and rising joblessness following the end of white rule in 1994.

"It's not that they want to return to apartheid, but in retrospect it was a time when trains ran on time," said poll director Robert Mattes on Wednesday. . . .

Overall, the polls showed that about 60 percent of South Africans felt the country was better run under apartheid, with both blacks and whites rating the current government less trustworthy, more corrupt, less able to enforce the law and less able to deliver government services than its white predecessor.

Not surprisingly, though, the results break down along racial lines. Sixty-five percent of whites identify "positive elements to whites-only rule," vs. just 20% of blacks.

Such Nerve!--II
"With Washington's approval, Iraq has bought more than 3.5 million vials of atropine since 1996 even though the drug can be used to protect against nerve gas attacks," Reuters reports. America is trying to get atropine banned from the list of drugs approved for sale under the "oil for food" program. "The United States made its move following reports that Iraq had recently tried to buy large quantities of the drug, along with so-called auto-injectors, from Turkey. An auto-injector enables a soldier to quickly administer the drug on the battlefield."

Where's the ACLU When You Need It?
Here in America there's a perennial battle over the legality of displaying the Ten Commandments on public property. Saddam Hussein has lots more than 10 commandments, the Associated Press reports:

Earlier this year, the Iraqi Information Ministry brought out "Saddam Hussein: Great Lessons, Commandments to Strugglers, the Patient and Holy Warriors." Most Iraqis were already familiar with the free pamphlet's contents, 57 quotations drawn from speeches made by Saddam, including one in 2000 marking the 12th anniversary of the end of the Iran-Iraq war.

Since 2000, selections from the 57 commandments have been painted on school walls, carved on statues, printed in Iraqi newspapers, splashed across huge billboards, framed and placed on the walls in government offices, printed in Iraqi newspapers--all of which are controlled by the state, Saddam's Baath party or Saddam's son Odai.

Among the commandments: "Don't be attracted to easy paths because the paths that make your feet bleed are the only way to get ahead in life."

Mightier Than the Swordd?
You may remember him from such films as "The Beaver Trilogy" and "Schneeweissrosenrot." Call Sean Penn's latest production "Three Days in Baghdad." A press release from an outfit that styles itself the Institute for Public Accuracy brings us the news:

The actor and director Sean Penn arrived in Baghdad on Friday morning at the start of a three-day visit to Iraq.

"By the invitation of the Institute for Public Accuracy, I have the privileged opportunity to pursue a deeper understanding of this frightening conflict," Penn said in a statement released in Washington and Baghdad on Friday. "I would hope that all Americans will embrace information available to them outside conventional channels. As a father, an actor, a filmmaker, and a patriot, my visit to Iraq is for me a natural extension of my obligation (at least attempt) to find my own voice on matters of conscience."

You Don't Say--I
"Al Qaeda Leadership Reported Disrupted"--headline, Washington Times, Dec. 13

Israelis Need Not Apply
"A British boycott of Israeli academics is gathering pace," reports the Manchester-based Guardian. Apparently British scholars aren't prejudiced; they hate all Israelis equally:

Dr Oren Yiftachel, a left-wing Israeli academic at Ben Gurion University, complained that an article he had co-authored with a Palestinian was initially rejected by the respected British journal Political Geography. He said it was returned to him unopened with a note stating that Political Geography could not accept a submission from Israel.

Mr Yiftachel said that, after months of negotiation, the article is to be published but only after he agreed to make substantial revisions, including making a comparison between his homeland and apartheid South Africa.

Stupidity Watch
The Portsmouth (N.H.) Herald reports that Joshua Meyrowitz, a professor and "media analyst" at the University of New Hampshire, is claiming that the American media "have become instruments of war propaganda." Just like in Nazi Germany!

Meyrowitz revealed his personal reasons for holding journalists to a higher standard. His uncle was among the Jews murdered by the Nazis, while both German and American journalists failed to report what was really going on. . . .

Prior to World War II, even the New York Times, with its Jewish executives and many Jewish reporters and editors, referred to the Nazis' victims as "unfortunates," rather than Jews.

More recently, the New Republic altered a photograph of Saddam Hussein, helping to justify another war on Iraq."They doctored his mustache to make him look like Hitler," Meyrowitz said.

Well, if opinion magazines are publishing propaganda, it can't be much longer before someone's firing up the gas chambers, can it?

Then Again . . .
Sometimes the news media do print propaganda. Check out the lead paragraph of this Associated Press dispatch by reporter Jennifer Loven:

PHILADELPHIA--President Bush circumvented Congress to advance key pieces of his divisive "faith-based initiative" Thursday, including one that lets federal contractors hire only people of certain faiths.

At least Loven doesn't call the initiative "Taliban-like," as the Boston Globe quotes Rep. Barney Frank as doing. Frank is gay, so in response let's quote Paul Varnell of the Independent Gay Forum on the Taliban's attitude toward homosexuality:

The Taliban's Islamic jurists knew that homosexuality was reprehensible and the sentence should be execution, but they were genuinely puzzled by conflicting Islamic opinion on exactly how the execution should be carried out.

"We have a dilemma on this," one Taliban leader explained. "One group of scholars believes you should take these people to the top of the highest building in the city, and hurl them to their deaths. (The other) believes in a different approach. They recommend you dig a pit near a wall somewhere, put these people in it, then topple the wall so that they are buried alive."

Say What?
"Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates to Plead Guilty to Theft" reads a headline in the Daily Californian, some 1,000 copies of which Bates stole before last month's election. But the subheadline is puzzling: "Mayor Agrees to Support Legislation Making Newspaper Theft Illegal." How can he plead guilty to something that isn't already illegal?

You Don't Say--II
"Damp, Cold Winter Predicted"--headline, Boston Globe, Dec. 13

You Don't Say--III
"Bankruptcy Cloud Makes United's Stock a Risky Gamble"--headline, Sacramento Bee, Dec. 13

Not Too Brite--XXX
Wow, has Reuters ever outdone itself. Skip to the next item if you have a weak stomach, but here's the latest "Oddly Enough" report, from Berlin:

German police are watching home videos made by a sex cannibal who apparently shared a last meal of flambeed penis with his willing victim before carving him up and freezing the man's remaining body parts to eat later.

This is so bizarre it almost has to be a hoax. Reuters notes that "police arrested the man after he posted an Internet advert seeking another male volunteer to satisfy his appetites."

She Skis Beautifully, That Girl!
"Italy's Karen Putzer put together two blistering runs to win a women's World Cup giant slalom here Thursday," the Associated Press reports from Val D'isere, France. "Sarah Schleper led the way for the U.S. team, tying for eighth place." But Katie Klutz, Shirley Shlimazel and Marcie Meshuganeh were not among the top finishers. Ech!

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