The Black Republican

It seems our old friend Mr. Lott has decided he's had enough of our guff, and decided to throw The 11th Commandment out the window.

The Senate is crammed with "lone wolves and immense egos," former Majority Leader Trent Lott writes in a memoir that settles a few scores with fellow Republicans and recounts an improbable partnership with a Democratic president.

In "Herding Cats, A Lifetime in Politics," Lott wrote that Sen. Bill Frist, his successor as majority leader, was one of the "main manipulators" in the events that resulted in his own loss of power. Lott lost his post in 2002 after making racially tinged remarks at a 100th birthday party for one-time segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond.

"Frist's actions amounted to a 'personal betrayal,'" Lott wrote. "I had taken him under my wing. ... He was my protege. ... We'd been friends off and on the floor, and that's pretty rare in a governmental body loaded with lone wolves and enormous egos."

...President Bush also played a role in his downfall, Lott wrote, not so much with what he said, but by saying it in a tone that was "devastating ... booming and nasty."

There's some old news here, too: Lott seems to be "in denial of some deep-seated problems when it comes to race".

A native of Mississippi, Lott recalled feeling "anger in my heart over the way the federal government had invaded Ole Miss to accomplish something that could have been handled peacefully and administratively," a reference to the admission of the University of Mississippi's first black student in 1962.

Yah, right. They ignored the 14th Amendment for almost a hundred years, but we could have let the good 'ol boys get around to it "administratively".

Well, Mr. Lott, I don't think we should hold you to that commandment - I've never thought of you as much of a Republican anyway.