LOTT AND LANDRIEU

Is it entirely coincidence that the day after Trent Lott lamented the end of legal racial segregation in this country that some Southern blacks turned out in unusually high numbers to deny Lott another Senate seat to add to his majority? I doubt it. Kudos to Jonah Goldberg and David Frum for seeing how damaging and vile Lott’s comments were. I’d add one more comment. We may be about to ask thousands of young African-Americans to risk their lives for this country. And the leader of the Senate publicly wishes they were still living under Jim Crow. It’s repulsive. And, so far, Lott hasn’t even had the decency to repudiate his own comments. Jonah says that “I don’t think Lott’s a racist, pro-lynching segregationist.” I don’t know Lott personally and have never met him. But one thing is clear: what he said could easily have been said by a racist, pro-lynching segregationist. And the burden of proof is now on Lott to say otherwise.