NO MORE APOLOGIES

If Drudge is right and Trent Lott makes yet another apology this afternoon, we’re entering the Twilight Zone. If all you’ve got is Sean Hannity and Pat Buchanan in your corner, and a damning silence from your colleagues, and a public denunciation from your own president, a fifth apology is simply not good enough. If Lott perseveres, he will be serving posthumously as Senate Majority Leader. He will be handing the Democrats a dream issue. The hard left position, that the GOP is a party of racists and closet racists and their enablers, will be given wider credibility. The New York Times spin is already trying to credit liberals – rather than many conservatives – with campaigning for Lott’s departure. I don’t know what the White House has been saying to Lott behind the scenes. But anything but asking him politely to step aside is not good enough. This is a pivotal moment for the GOP and the whole country is watching. The skeptics – who argue that Bush’s denunication was not genuine and will be followed by acquiescing to Lott’s leadership – will gain adherents. And many more centrist Republicans – and Southern Republicans – will be crushed that this relic of a terrible legacy has been allowed to live another day. This isn’t something that can be smoothed over. Lott must go.