Remember, Frist isn't running for re-election. So he won't be the Majority Leader in 2007 because he won't be a senator; it will have nothing to do with an insurgency candidacy. McConnell has the leadership post wrapped up right now for the next term. Which is probably a good thing for Republicans. I think the most effective congressional leaders are the ones that have no realistic White House ambitions. The GOP whip position will be a race between Kyl and Santorum, if Santorum is re-elected. If Santorum loses, that's probably the position that Lott will seek. The only other person to look out for is Hutchinson, who wants to move up from her post. She just doesn't have the votes in the caucus right now, though. I'd be VERY surprised if the 2007 leadership team isn't McConnell/Kyl, with Kyl the heir apparent for Leader.
You misspelled "Karl Rove." Seriously, Frist is like the mafia guy who wants to do the hit, but he has to ask the boss for permission. Rove gave the OK to whack Lott. And Matt, yeah, we know, you can't read Lott's mind...but if you think "these problems" were HUD policies and not uppity nigras, let me let you in on a little secret. Don't give your bank account to those Nigerian guys who send you e-mail. You're welcome.
Find whoever gave you this talking point, and slap him in the testicles, hard. Even the REPUBLICANS were for more public housing in 1948. Something about returning GI's, and a baby boom. More to the point, the Dixiecrats didn't say a damn thing about public housing. It was, as Lyndon Johnson would put it later, "nigra nigra nigra." It's possible to look this stuff up, you know.
I actually agree. Not with the Tookie part, although I found that very funny. But I don't think Lott was trying to reference anything in particular. I think he was being purposefully vague in a way that you would to give tribute to a man like Thurmond. Unfortunately, sometimes platitudes are just as bad as specifics.
No white Mississippian waving the Dixie flag at Ole Miss football games, saying "n***er this" and "n***er that" in casual conversation, thinks he's offending anyone, either. So that makes it right? I expect a little more from someone who is among the 10-15 most powerful people in the US government. Lott knew exactly what he was saying, he knew why he said it, and he knew the audience to whom he said it. They applauded loudly when he said that Mississippians voted for Thurmond in '48 and were proud of it -- but even they were taken aback by his last sentence. But even with their reaction it took a couple of weeks to get the story out. Lott didn't regret what he said; he regretted getting caught saying it. Threadjack! Take it over to the "Is the US Communist" thread, libbyboy.
Gawd! So long as he didn't put on a white robe it would be fine with you. Everyone (except you?) knew exactly what he meant.
This thread shouldn't go too far with the "Truman did dick for civil rights" meme out there. Just off the top of my head. -Desegregated the armed forces by executive order (that took big ********ing balls in 1948). -Signed off on Humphrey's civil rights plank at the 1948 convention that led to the Dixiecrat walkout. This was the first time that Democrats had made Black civil rights a platform plank and alienated the southern party. Matt, you really need to read Tom Sugrue's Origins of the Urban Crisis to complicate the white flight/second ghetto/HUD story. There's a lot more going on.