Lott's paparazzi

Over in Lott's hometown of Pascagoula, the locals are pissed at the "media frenzy" around Lott. This article is revealing in a couple of ways.

First of all, the Lott "media frenzy" is actually only nearly a dozen reporters. If this was a JLo-Afflack breakup, there would probably be two dozen reporters or more. A Bill Clinton blow job, perhaps three dozen. A major sporting event, several hundred.

But the number 2 guy in the Senate, an avowed racist, can garner only 10 or 11? Of course, there are more reporters covering the story in DC, but Lott isn't in DC. He's in Mississippi. And this just all points to the misplaced priorities in our society.

Secondly, the people of Mississippi, despite all that's come out, still love him. Southerners cry that the rest of the country doesn't respect them. But I tend to think that if Olympia Snowe pulled a Lott, her constituents would demand her head.

True, racism exists in the North (and West and East), but everyone generally acknowledges it's a bad thing. Instead, in MS, they say things like:

They don't like Trent because he's presidential material. They've gotta stop him before he gets there.

Gotcha. Lott was "presidential material". This was all a vast media plot to destroy Lott's ascendency to the throne. The ventriloquist bit at Thurmond's party was genius -- inserting those hateful words into his mouth.

Whatever. Lott is now irrelevent. And, to boot, Thurmond's reputation was destroyed in the process. Instead of sending Strom off to pasture with teary eyed tributes, he'll be remembered as one of the nation's top leaders in the segregationist, anti-Civil Rights movement. Nothing less than either of them deserve.

Posted December 20, 2002 09:53 AM | Comments (25)