Lott Asks For Another Chance

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott says he made a "terrible mistake," "used horrible words," and "caused hurt" when he said on Dec. 5 that the country would have been better off if Strom Thurmond, the segregationist candidate in the 1948 election, had become president.

Lott - in what was his fifth public apology, this one in an interview on Black Entertainment Television - failed to convince at least one important member of that audience that he should stay on in his job as Senate Majority leader.

NAACP chairman Julian Bond says that after listening to Lott's answers to questions posed by BET interviewer Ed Gordon, he came away feeling that Lott is "utterly unsuited" to be Senate Majority Leader - or even a senator at all.

Lott is in the number two leadership position in the Republican party. While President Bush, number one in the GOP pecking order, hasn't called for Lott to step aside, some of Lott's colleagues have their doubts and Monday decided to hold a meeting January 6 to consider whether he should be replaced.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., says the closed-door meeting will be a good opportunity to discuss the situation and "make clear to the American people that the GOP remains the party of Lincoln both in word and in deed."

Lott doesn't think Mr. Bush will ask him to resign.

"I think it would be a mistake," said Lott. "I don't believe he would do that."

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer has called Lott's comments on the 1948 campaign "offensive and repugnant" but has also said that "the president does not think he (Lott) needs to resign."

Bond says when the background of the Mississippi Republican Senator is added up, "it's pretty easy to say Trent Lott is a racist" and someone who GOP Republicans cannot afford to keep as their leader in the Senate.

Jesse Jackson, on the other hand, says it's up to the Republicans to decide what to do about Lott but he believes they should at least censure him "for his historic support of racial segregation."

Jackson also says it's important to look beyond Lott's own remorse to the need for "an institutional change in behavior by the entire Republican Party."

In the BET interview, taped Monday afternoon in Mobile, Ala., Lott said he doesn't think he should resign, believes he will be able to retain his leadership position despite the controversy, has changed his mind about some key issues, and believes he could be a positive force for change.

"I've asked for forgiveness and I'm going to continue to do that," said Lott. "But it is about actions more than words. As Majority Leader, I can move an agenda that would hopefully be helpful to African Americans and minorities of all kinds and all Americans."

Lott said he has talked to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., about setting up a task force on reconciliation and has contacted Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, about setting up an African American summit.

Lewis - a giant in the civil rights movement who fought for voting rights and risked his life battling segregation as one of the Freedom Riders in the south - spoke to Lott on Monday.

The Georgia Democrat thought Lott seemed "sincere" and invited Lott to join him in an annual civil rights tour in March through places like Selma, Ala., where police beat Lewis during the 1960s civil rights struggle.

"I'd like to come down on his side, giving him a chance," said Lewis. "I'm not one of those calling for him to step down and give up his leadership post. We all make mistakes, we all make blunders. It's very much keeping with the philosophy and discipline of non-violence to forgive and move on."

In the BET interview, Lott stuck to his previously expressed explanation that while the words he spoke sounded like praise for the segregationist policies of the past, that wasn't what he meant by those words, although he shouldn't have said them.

"I'm now trying to find a way to deal with the understandable hurt that I have caused," said Lott. "You can, you know, say it was innocent, but it was insensitive at the very least and repugnant, frankly."

Asked what he did mean by praising Thurmond's 1948 bid for the presidency, Lott said he got to know Thurmond well in the late 1970s or early 1980s, when he admired his efforts as a "senator that was committed in the fight against communism, that had fought Nazism, a senator that was for fiscal responsibility, you know, and one that also thought that law and order was very important, protecting people of all races against crime. That's what his focus was."

In the interview, Lott was asked to explain another remark he made on Dec. 5, at Thurmond's 100th birthday party, in a toast to the retiring Senator: "If the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

"What did you mean when you say 'those problems' ?" BET interviewer Ed Gordon asked Lott.

"I was talking about the problems of defense, of communism, and budget, of a government that sometimes didn't do its job," Lott said. "But again I understand that was interpreted by people the way it was and I should have been sensitive to that. I obviously made a mistake and I'm doing everything I can to admit that and deal with it and correct it. And I'm hope that people will give me a chance to do so."

As for the segregation that used to be the law in the south, the Mississippi senator said: "There was a society then that was wrong and wicked. I didn't create it and I didn't even really understand it for many, many years. There was - look, I feel very strongly about my faith, and I have grown over the years. But in order to be a racist, you have to feel superior. I don't feel superior to you at all. I don't believe any man or any woman is superior to any other."

Lott said he has changed his mind on some issues over the years, including the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday - which he voted against but now supports.

Asked about that vote, Lott said: "I'm not sure we in America, certainly not white America and people in the south, truly understood who this man was. The impact he was having on the fabric of this country."

Lott said he has "learned a lot more since then. I have a high appreciation for him being a man of peace, a man that was for non-violence, a man that did change this country. I made a mistake."

Lott also emphasized that he supports "affirmative action. And I practice it. I have had African Americans on my staff, and other minorities, but particularly African Americans, since the mid-1970s."

"You understand to have a black on your staff, and to push legislation that would help African Americans and minorities across the board, are completely different?" said Gordon.

"Again, you can get into arguments about timetables and quotas," replied Lott. "Here's what I think, though: I think you've got to have an aggressive effort in America to make everybody have a chance."

Lott's appeal for "people to forgive my mistake and give me a chance" to make a difference may or may not sway votes among GOP colleagues now jockeying for position in the event that a new leader might be chosen to take over from Lott in the Senate.

Sen. Don Nickles, the outgoing whip, tops the list of possible candidates. Nickles, R-Okla., Lott's longtime rival within the GOP leadership, was the first Republican to break ranks over the weekend and call for new leadership elections.

Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has also gained prominence in recent months, following a successful stint as chairman of the senatorial campaign committee.

"My Republican colleagues and I are actively engaged in deciding what is in the best interest of the Senate as an institution and the country," said Frist, who some have mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008. "I am confident a consensus will emerge, but no decisions have been made yet."