REVIEW & OUTLOOK
The Republicans' Lott
He must ask if he's still the best leader for the GOP.
We weighed in early against Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's remarks at Strom Thurmond's birthday bash, but the issue has since blown up into a classic Beltway firestorm. The question now is whether Mr. Lott can still provide the leadership necessary for Republicans to accomplish their goals when Congress reconvenes next month.
We don't think Mr. Lott is a racist, and we take seriously the point made yesterday by former Democratic Senator Paul Simon, who was on hand for the event. "I've worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and been at the forefront of civil rights legislation. If I thought it was serious, I'd be denouncing it," Mr. Simon said. "But I think it's being taken out of context, and that's not being fair to Trent."
Yet the remark was insulting both to blacks and to the racial progress America has made over 40 years, as well as remarkably obtuse for someone as experienced in politics as Mr. Lott. His handling of the reaction has been even worse, with his first apology merely perfunctory and coming four days late. The second one sounded more like he really meant it, and by yesterday, when he apologized a third time, he was positively contrite.
Mr. Lott said through a spokesman that "his words were wrong" and agreed with President Bush, who said earlier in the day that "any suggestion that the segregated past was acceptable or positive is offensive and it is wrong." When a President feels obliged to rebuke the Senate leader of his own party, you know the Senator has probably earned it.
The issue now, however, is whether Mr. Lott can still lead the GOP Senate in what is a historic opportunity for conservative reform. Tax cuts, judicial appointments, Medicare reform, school choice for Washington, D.C., welfare reform and faith-based charity are all on the GOP agenda, and they are all more important than a single Senator's fate. The tragedy is that this would do more to help more black Americans than anything modern liberals propose.
The Democrats have naturally pounced on Mr. Lott's remarks, and there is something smarmy about their political opportunism. Their game plan is to stereotype the new Republican majority as anti-black, try to make Mr. Lott radioactive, and mobilize the Democratic base for 2004.
It's also an unfortunate fact of politics that Republicans are up against a double standard on matters of race. Jesse Jackson can utter an anti-Semitic slur ("Hymietown") but somehow still claim the moral authority to lecture Mr. Lott. Senator Robert Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan and the only Senator of either party to vote against both African-American nominees to the Supreme Court, is exalted as a Democratic eminence grise.
And we should add that criticism of Mr. Lott came first from conservatives, with Democrats mostly piling on after they saw which way the political winds were blowing. Minority Leader Tom Daschle even defended him at first before turning on a highly principled dime. John Kerry took until Wednesday to sprint to the front of the Democratic Presidential high-dudgeon queue.
But this is the reality of modern politics. The Senate GOP will now have to defend against the race card that Mr. Lott gave their enemies to play. If you thought the judicial fight over Charles Pickering's appeals-court nomination was ugly the first time around, just wait until Mr. Bush renominates Mr. Lott's friend and fellow Mississippian in January--if indeed he now does. And if the Supreme Court rules against racial quotas at the University of Michigan next spring, watch for the words "affirmative action" and "Lott" to appear in the same headlines.
In light of this, it's remarkable that Senate Republicans have shown the restraint they have. Partly this is because Mr. Lott had shrewdly moved GOP leadership elections earlier than usual this year. Had the majority leader vote been held this week instead, he would no doubt be facing a stiff challenge from the likes of Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, Bill Frist of Tennessee or Pennsylvania's Rick Santorum. We think they would all do better as GOP leaders than Mr. Lott.
But none of them is now likely to challenge a sitting leader. So it is going to be up to Mr. Lott to search his own conscience and decide if he remains the best man to lead Republicans in the Senate.
