forward tries again

Daschle's Role as Lott's Enabler

by Derrick Z. Jackson

(Boston Globe, Dec. 25) -- As Trent Lott goes out the door as the
Senate's
Republican leader, he can take Tom Daschle with him.

Fresh from the feckless performance in the mid-term elections that
delivered control of the Senate to the Republicans, the Democrats did
not
have a clue what to do initially about Lott's praise of Strom Thurmond's

1948 segregationist presidential campaign.

Daschle, the Democratic leader in the Senate, initially bought the
story
of Lott, who honored Thurmond's 100th birthday by saying if the nation
had
elected Thurmond, "we wouldn't have had all these problems over all
these
years."

Lott said his remarks were part of a "lighthearted celebration."
Daschle
chose to give him cover. "Senator Lott, in my conversations with him
this
morning, explained that that wasn't how he meant them to be interpreted.
I
accept that. There are a lot of times when he and I go to the
microphone,
would like to say things we meant to say differently, and I'm sure this
is
one of those cases for him as well."

A subtle but critical subcontext is that Daschle's comment was in
response to a question at the very end of a long press conference.
Earlier
in the press conference, Daschle talked about Lott as if nothing had
happened, even though it was four days after Lott's remark. Talking
about
changes in the makeup of Senate committees, Daschle said, "We look
forward
to working with Senator Lott." Daschle had his chance to say something
on
his own, but chose to play go along to get along.

As Lott's self-inflicted wounds became more and more mortal, Daschle
had
to do some damage control of his own. After Representative Maxine Waters
of
California said Daschle "moved too quickly' to give Lott a pass, Daschle

said, 'When Senator Lott called me yesterday morning, he indicated he
did
not mean for his statement to be interpreted to condone segregation, and
I
accept that. That does not mean, however, that I found the statement
appropriate ... it was wrong to say it, and I strongly disagree with
it.'

The next day Daschle issued yet another clarification, after another
comment by Lott praising Thurmond in 1980 was exhumed. 'It is profoundly

disturbing that Senator Lott's statement last week was not an isolated
incident,' Daschle said. 'Such statements were unacceptable in 1980, and

they are no less so today."

As Daschle wallowed in angst, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, a
probable presidential contender in 2004, became the first senator to say

Lott should resign as incoming majority leader. But it took Kerry nearly
a
week to come to his conclusion. He was beaten to the punch by several
conservative commentators and strategists who feared that Lott would
sabotage their agenda.

Kerry and many other Democrats were asleep at the wheel of history,
participating in the revisionist hoopla of Thurmond's birthday. They
filled
the air with plenty of praise without any reference to the fact that
Thurmond for decades espoused politics that often had deadly
consequences
for many African-Americans and some white civil rights workers in the
Deep
South.

Kerry said, "The Senate will lose a man who has seen the arc of the
20th
century with his very eyes, from fighting in some of the greatest
battles in
world history to bearing witness to the Great Depression and the Great
Society." Notice that Kerry managed to omit the civil rights movement.

Similarly, Democratic Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware said, 'Strom's

word is his bond.' Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut said, "I

cannot even begin to imagine the U.S. Senate without this remarkable
individual in our presence."

White Democrats have to begin to imagine a Senate where they will not
be
so friendly with people like Lott and the many Republicans who vote like

Lott on civil rights issues. Lott's associations with racist groups
should
have earned him a permanent disdain from the Democrats. It did not.
Those
associations, plus his most recent Thurmond comment, should have
resulted in
an instant calling for his resignation by the Democrats. It did not.

As of now, the strategy of the Democrats is to assume that Lott's
words
will keep African-Americans and moderate white suburban women from
considering the Republican Party and energize them for Democratic
candidates
in 2004. That a strategy that assumes the Democrats need do nothing. No
one
should be surprised if that strategy fails.

People might be leery of the Republicans, but they can also see right

through the Democrats, whose incessant appeals to so-called centrism
have
left them without the stomach for fighting racism. Daschle claimed that
Lott's words were unacceptable. By doing business with Lott all these
years,
the Democrats proved how acceptable Lott really was.

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
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