The most serious faux pas a politician can make is to inadvertantly speak the truth, particularly when it has been papered over with a thin tissue of lies. Mr. Lott has now done this, and he will likely pay with his position as Senate Majority Leader for his unfortunate stating of the obvious.

At a small celebration of that great American segregationist, Strom Thurmond, Lott referred to Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign as candidate from the "National State's Rights Party," in which he carried four states - Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Lott gushed, "I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either."

This was, of course, pointedly ignored by the GOP leadership and the right-wing pundits, who were focusing on Mr. Kerry's haircut until the furor was just too much. Bush then stated, "Recent comments by Senator Lott do not reflect the spirit of our country." He added, "Every day that our nation was segregated was a day our nation was unfaithful to our founding ideals." I guess he can be allowed the historical inaccuracy, since most members of the GOP say racism no longer exists in America either.

Yet, according to a briefing by Ari Fleischer, the president does not think that Trent Lott should resign. "Someone needed to take him out to the woodshed over those statements. This needed to come out so that we can all move on. He's been rebuked by the president for that stupid comment. Lott can now move on in leading the party."

Mr. William "Family Values" Bennett said, "On their face, the recent comments of Sen. Trent Lott are offensive, repugnant and inimical to what the Republican Party stands for." But its still clearly OK with the President and the GOP to have a life long racist as the leader of the Senate. After all, he has apologized.

<sarcasm>And we all know that the Republicans are not a party built on racism.</sarcasm> This cartoon encapsulates the GOP's response.

I'm sure I don't need to give all the long litany of GOP attempts to intimidate and disenfranchise black voters. But recent highlights include:

• Paid white "rioters" block counting of ballots in Florida (link)
  
• GOP election officials in Florida placing defective voting machine in black precincts so that more than 1/3 of the votes are disqualified (link)
  
• GOP "poll watchers" confronting black voters asking for picture ID voting cards (which do not exist), abetted by local GOP election officials (link)
  
• Leaflets distributed in black areas of Maryland telling people they couldn't vote unless they paid back rent (link)
  
• GOP allegation of voter fraud and "FBI investigation" in South Dakota aimed at suppressing Native American votes (link)
  
• GOP-hired black youths intimidating their neighbors not to vote for Mary Landrieu (link)
  

There are other posts on this topic, like this one on Lean Left.