Emmett, you’re wrong.

Emmett, your passionate defense of Lott is inspiring, but wrong. He needs to go and he should have the courage to take one for the team here. I’m not suggesting that he leaves the Senate, that is up to the fine people of Mississippi, but to have him be in charge of the President’s agenda in the Senate is problematic. There is no way he will be able to extract any good-will from the Democrats here. Regardless of hypocrisy (which you are correct to note), they know they will be able to gut Lott, and more importantly Bush’s agenda, like a fish with him in charge. Do you think conservative judges will get their appointments? Or the tax cuts we need? Defense and security? Every time he needs a break, and with only a slim majority and some soft GOP Senators to boot this will be often, all the left will have to do is play a clip of him singing Thurmond’s praises and mention re-election to make him offer his soul (if he has one left) to move a bill. In that slip of the tongue, Lott lost all credibility as a national leader.

Also, consider it this way… The Democrats may have flocked to protect the Clintons like flies to …. but we should have higher standards and not allow ourselves to be accused of hypocrisy.