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--> --> If Bush wants someone to blame, try Lott By Roger Simon WASHINGTON, D.C. - The White House got a big surprise in Louisiana over the weekend: The Democrats actually won an election. The Democrats were not supposed to be capable of this anymore. The November elections seemed to indicate that all the White House had to do to secure a victory was for the president to show up and give a speech. And it looked like that was going to work in Louisiana. Bush came out and told voters he needed Suzanne Haik Terrell as a U.S. senator in order to safeguard the homeland. Terrell's poll numbers instantly zoomed until she was running neck and neck with incumbent Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu. Terrell had all the momentum, and Landrieu looked finished. In order to win, she would need a huge black turnout. But why should African-Americans turn out and vote in the unusual Saturday runoff election? Polls show black voters are pretty satisfied with George Bush. And, classically, minorities turn out in large numbers only when they feel threatened or have some other dramatic motivation. None such existed. Until Thursday, that is, when Sen. Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi and the incoming Senate majority leader, got up at a nationally televised birthday party for Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., and said: "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." That statement brought gasps from the crowd. Why? Because when Strom Thurmond ran for president in 1948, he was an ardent segregationist, a devoted white supremacist and a believer that the races should not be educated together, eat together or swim together for fear that the white race might become "polluted." Thurmond broke with the Democratic Party when that party adopted a civil rights plank that opposed, among other things, the lynching of black people. He accepted the nomination of the Dixiecrat Party, whose platform stated, "We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race." "All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches," Thurmond said. Even decades later, even on the 100th birthday that was being celebrated Thursday, Thurmond refused to apologize for his support for segregation. But Trent Lott said he was proud Mississippi had voted for Thurmond and "if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either." But what problems was Lott speaking of? Integration? Civil rights? Racial equality? Lott would not say. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was asked if President Bush supported what Lott had said. Fleischer said: "Many people have spoken on the floor of the United States Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike, in praise of Senator Thurmond. And I think this is a day in 2002 to celebrate Sen. Thurmond's 100th birthday with pride." In other words, Bush didn't want to say, either. The damage was done, however. The Republican Party, once known as the party of Lincoln, did not look so benign to black voters. As The Washington Post reported, "In 1998 and 1999, Lott was criticized after disclosures that he had been a speaker at meetings of the Council of Conservative Citizens, an organization formed to succeed the segregationist white Citizens' Councils of the 1960s. In a 1992 speech in Greenwood, Miss., Lott told CCC members: "The people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy. Let's take it in the right direction, and our children will be the beneficiaries." Democratic activists in Louisiana now had a way to rally black voters by telling them: If you want to give Republicans more power, just stay home Saturday. But if you want to protect your civil rights, go to the polls and vote for the Democrat. Black voters turned out in big numbers. They voted for the Democrat, and the Democrat won. And if George Bush is looking for somebody to blame, he doesn't have to look any farther than Trent Lott. Roger Simon is a syndicated columnist for the Baltimore Sun. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing