The Top Ten Conservative Idiots (No. 94)
December 16, 2002
Trent Lott Special

Well, well, well. It should come as no surprise to you that Trent Lott has set a new record for conservative idiocy this week. Captain Combover has managed to take up a valuable eight slots this week, for a variety of different offenses. This doubles the previous best record, held by George W. Bush at four appearances in one week. Not only that, but he's got his hands all over the 9th slot too, which is occupied by People Who Tried To Cover For Trent Lott. Finally, in tenth place we've got a round-up of all the idiots who got pushed aside by Trent Racist-Foot-In-Mouth Lott, so you won't miss anything this week. One final note: we will be taking a break from publishing during the holiday period, so this will be the last Top Ten Conservative Idiots of 2002. Have a great holiday and a Happy New Year, and we'll see you all again in 2003! (As usual, don't forget the key, although you might not actually need it this week...)

Trent Lott
In last week's Idiots we noted that Trent Lott had made a pro-segregation comment at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party. And now the Mississippi Hair Helmet may be wishing that ol' Strom had cashed in his chips before hitting a century. First out of the blocks to bash Lott's "if the rest of the country had of followed our lead we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years" comment were the Congressional Black Caucus and Al Gore, who last week called the remark "racist" and suggested that the dubiously-touped Republican leader should be censured by the Senate. Next came House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and a host of commentators from both the left and the right. Somewhat belatedly, Tom Daschle and George W. Bush stepped up to the plate too.

Trent Lott
But the poop really hit the fan for Lott when it was revealed last week that his comment was no "misstatement" or "slip-up" or "throwaway remark." See, it turns out that our Trent has been harboring these feelings for some time. Apparently in 1980, as a Mississippi congressman, he told a political gathering that if the country had elected segregationist candidate Strom Thurmond to the presidency "30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today," according to the Washington Post. Sound familiar? The disclosure prompted a fresh round of criticism from all and sundry, and Lott's "misstatement" defense fell flat on its ass.

Trent Lott
But there was more to come from the bigoted once-and-future-maybe Senate Majority Leader. Hot on the heels of the 1980 revelation came news that back in the 1960s, Trent Lott "helped lead a successful battle to prevent his college fraternity from admitting blacks to any of its chapters," according to Time magazine. "Sigma Nu's executive secretary Richard Fletcher, a legendary figure in the fraternity, pleaded with the Sigma Nus to find some common ground between those who wanted to integrate and those who didn't ... But the southerners were unbending about permitting no exceptions to the all-white policy. With their chapters threatening a walkout, the fraternity voted overwhelmingly to remain all-white." Way to go, Trent! You showed those uppity black folks a thing or too. Former CNN President and Sigma Nu member Tom Johnson said of Lott, "Trent was one of the strongest leaders in resisting the integration of the national fraternity in any of the chapters."

Trent Lott
Want more? In 1983 Bob Jones University, the university famous for its practice of segregation, lost a lawsuit against the IRS. The IRS had taken away BJU's tax-exempt status because the school practiced racial discrimination, but BJU thought that racists ought to be tax-exempt too. A judge disagreed. So what's this got to do with the Rugmaster himself? Well if you take a look at the list of individuals and organizations who filed briefs defending Bob Jones University's position... why, could that be Congressman Trent Lott's name? Surely not. Lott said in the brief that "racial discrimination does not always violate public policy." Nice.

Trent Lott
After it was established that Trent Lott is and always has been a racist, it was left to the man himself to throw together a pathetic defense of his so-called commitment to civil rights. This came to a sum total of three pages covering a 40 year period. According to the Washington Post, Lott has "consistently taken positions at odds with those of the traditional civil rights community," - for example, voting against establishing Martin Luther King Day as a federal holiday (Lott quote to Southern Partisan magazine: "Look at the cost involved in the Martin Luther King holiday and the fact that we have not done it for a lot of other people that were more deserving,") and voting against extending the Voting Rights Act. (Interestingly, Strom Thurmond voted in favor of both cases.) After throwing out a couple of tired one-liners on Larry King Live ("Look, you put your foot in your mouth, you're getting carried away at a ceremony honoring a guy like this, you go too far,") Lott came up with an even better excuse: "I was 7 years old when Strom first ran for president. I don't really remember anything about the campaign." Ri-i-i-ght. So he had honestly had no idea that Strom Thurmond ran a purely segregationist presidential campaign. Uh-huh, really. Odd - he seemed pretty knowledgeable about it when he was waxing lyrical at Strom's birthday party.

Trent Lott
In fact, it's funny how Trent Lott seems to know very little about the people he supports. For example, throughout the 1990s he has had close ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist organization. In 1992 he was keynote speaker at the Council's national board meeting where he announced that, "the people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy," in 1997 he hosted a private meeting for the Council's leaders, and for eight years he wrote a column for the CCC's magazine. And yet when he he was challenged, he claimed that he had "no firsthand knowledge" of the CCC's activities. Perhaps he should have consulted his uncle, who is an executive of the CCC, and his cousin, who is a member. Incidentally, the CCC last week announced that Trent Lott spoke the truth, and should be commended. They also suggested that black people should be sent back to Africa.

Trent Lott
Unfortunately, Lott's desperate attempt to "clarify" his comments by calling a press conference in Trent-friendly Mississippi (the press corps applauded before and after the conference - how's that for fair and balanced?) seem to have failed. Over the weekend his deputy, Sen. Don Nickles, called for a new vote for party leader. Of course Nickles is the obvious choice to replace Lott, so it's no wonder he called for a a new vote. But bearing in mind that if the Senate Republicans vote for Trent to stay on as leader they will essentially be endorsing his comments, the Rugmaster's days could well be numbered.

Trent Lott
And it's also no wonder that Bush was pissed at Trent Lott. By showing the Republican party for what it is, Lott's blatant racism has put a big dent in all of Bush and Rove's efforts to woo the black community with their so-called "compassionate conservatism." As MSNBC reported last week, "Lott may hold onto his job as the new Senate majority leader, but the damage has already been done." In light of Don Nickles comments, Lott may struggle to hold onto his job. But if he had one single shred of decency, he would have stepped down immediately.

People Who Tried To Cover For Trent Lott
Anyone with half a brain knows that Trent Lott's comments were racist, plain and simple. Which is why it was so disturbing when so many politicians and commentators came out in his defense. Sean Hannity was the number one culprit, spending the whole week on his show trying to deflect the blame onto other parties - that is, Democrats - arguing that there was double-standard. According to Hannity, old-school Democrats got a free pass from the media despite their anti-civil rights backgrounds. Unfortunately for Sean, those Democrats all renounced their past behavior many, many years ago and have since developed decent civil rights voting records. The worst offender in the race to blame anyone but Trent was newsmax.com, who complained bitterly that the press never said anything when it was alleged that Roger Clinton, wayward brother of Bill, used the "N" word on a police surveillance tape in 1984. Perhaps if Roger Clinton were Senate Majority Leader the story would have gotten more press coverage, you morons.

Idiots Ad Nauseum
And finally: there was a lot of Lott this week, so here are some links to the other conservative idiots we didn't have time to cover: Michael Keene, son of one of the members of the board of directors of the National Rifle Association was arrested for committing a road rage shooting... Henry Kissinger resigned from the 9/11 commission rather than reveal his list of clients... Rush Limbaugh was left stumbling and bumbling after a sneak attack from a liberal caller... GOP leaders are clamping down to make sure that house members toe the conservative line... The Secret Service questioned a high school student because he was wearing a "not my president" T-shirt... Donald Rumsfeld admitted that he met with Saddam Hussein twice in the 1980s... George W. Bush wants to speed up logging... The GAO is widening its enquiry of Janet Rehnquist... Bush's pick to head the SEC, William Donaldson, is quite the shady character... and, according to the entirely unreliable WorldNetDaily, Georgia legislators will introduce a bill early next month that refers to abortion as an ''execution'' and will require any mother seeking an abortion to go to court to obtain a death warrant.

PLEASE NOTE: We are taking a break from publishing articles during the holiday period (our message board will still be open, of course) so there will not be a new Top Ten until January 13, 2003. Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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