Opinion: A Lott to apologize for

Strom Thurmond is a harmless centenarian now, so those who celebrated the retiring South Carolina senator's 100th birthday the other day can be forgiven for having glossed over his ugly history of racist defiance. But Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi is still one of the most powerful people in Washington. So when Lott chose to use Thurmond's birthday party as an occasion for some racially offensive comments of his own, the words can't be so easily ignored.

Speaking at a huge party for Thurmond that included Supreme Court justices and other members of Congress, Lott noted that Thurmond carried Mississippi when he ran for president in 1948 on the segregationist Dixiecrat ticket. "We're proud of it," Lott said to applause. "And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

Lott didn't say what "problems" he had in mind, but Thurmond's candidacy was inspired by poisonous opposition to laws intended to guarantee the rights of blacks in the South to vote, attend decent schools and get a fair chance to compete for decent jobs.

Once his insulting words were made public, Lott offered the sort of nonapology that has become typical in Washington. He "apologize(d) to anyone who was offended by my statement." He also said he regretted that his "poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past."

But the comments were no slip of the tongue. Lott has made racially insensitive comments before when he thought his words wouldn't become public. He has often spoken at meetings of the Council of Conservative Citizens, which succeeded the virulently racist Citizen Councils that fought civil rights laws in the 1960s. In a 1992 speech, Lott praised CCC members for "stand(ing) for the right principles and the right philosophy."

Some Democrats, such as Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle and Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, were entirely too quick to dismiss Lott's offensive comments at Thurmond's party. Others, such as U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a former colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were less forgiving. "Is Lott saying the country should have voted . . . for segregated schools, 'white' and 'colored' restrooms? . . . That is what Strom Thurmond stood for in 1948."

But it is fellow Republicans, beginning with President Bush, who should insist that such offensive comments are unacceptable from a party leader. (White House spokesman Ari Fleischer stopped short of doing that Tuesday.) At the very least, Republicans should demand that Lott offer a fuller and more sincere apology. Failing that, they should reconsider whether he is fit to serve as Senate majority leader. Anything less will perpetuate the suspicion that the Republican Party is still comfortable sending the discreetly racist messages that fueled its ascendancy in the South a generation ago -- or even the baldly racist messages that earlier defined Strom Thurmond and the disgraceful Dixiecrats who inspired politicians such as Lott.

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