Biden Casts His Lott
By Mark I Posted in Democrats | Spotlight Blogs — Comments (23) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) was forced to resign as Senate Majority Leader back in December 2002 after he made some comments that were interpreted, wrongly, as an endorsement of segregation. All of the apologies in the world couldn’t rescue Lott from his words, or from the whirlwind generated by attacking Democrats and their enablers in the mainstream press.
So, one expects Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) to resign his position in Senate leadership soon, given the nature of the comments he made at a Rotary Club event in South Carolina on Saturday.
Hat tip: Jim Geraghty at NRO
Read on…
Back in 2002, Lott was addressing a birthday party for retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC). Thurmond had run for president in 1948 as an avowed segregationist. It should be noted that when Thurmond ran for president it was as a breakaway candidate from the party to which he then belonged, the Democratic Party.
Here is what Lott 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.”
It was a version of a joke that Lott had told before. A “botched joke” you might say. But Lott was not given the benefit of the doubt, and an eager Democratic Party, still smarting from its election losses just one month earlier, pounced. Lott was called a racist, and every other name under the sun. His past votes, statements, and writings were scrutinized for evidence of his crimes. And, he was forced to resign by members of his own party, too eager to sacrifice one of their own to the gods of the Washington press corps.
Now let’s look at what Biden had to say on Saturday to the Rotary Club of Columbia, South Carolina.
Delaware, he noted, was a “slave state that fought beside the North. That’s only because we couldn’t figure out how to get to the South. There were a couple of states in the way.”[my emphasis]
Biden has just suggested that the State of Delaware, the first state of the Union, would have sided against the Union in the Civil War if it could have. The reason? Not state’s rights, mind you, but slavery. Biden characterizes Delaware not as a libertarian, or federalist state determined to protect its interests against a tyrannical Federal government, but as a “slave state” that only sided with the Union because of its physical location. Never mind those uppity abolitionists, Delaware would have fought to keep the blacks in their place, if only they could have, says Biden. It almost sounds like he is saying that the rest of the country wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years either, if only Delaware could’ve fought for the Confederacy.
Biden’s statement is every bit as bad as Lott’s was. What’s more, Biden has a recent history of saying things that are somewhat ethnically insensitive. Remember when Biden happily informed us that, “You can’t walk into a 7-11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts in my state unless you have a slight Indian accent?” He told us he wasn’t joking. Should we take him at his word? If so, should we assume he was joking at the Rotary Club? Biden launched into his riff just after it was announced that the club would be holding its annual Christmas party at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, where the state’s original Articles of Secession could be viewed. Perhaps the mention of the Articles stirred up some long lost nostalgia in him for the good ole’ days when men fought for the right to hold other men in slavery. That’s every bit as good a rationale as those that were applied to Sen. Lott in the wake of his ill-advised and poorly delivered joke.
Biden is a buffoon, it’s clear to see. But he should be held to the same standard that Trent Lott was held to four years ago. Biden’s entire public history should be scrutinized, his writings and those he plagiarized should be analyzed, and all of his votes should be combed through for evidence of his obvious racial bigotry. And then he should be forced to resign his chairmanship and any other leadership position he holds or aspires to, no matter what is found. What’s good for the Republican should be good for the Democrat.
to claim
"It almost sounds like he is saying that the rest of the country wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years either, if only Delaware could’ve fought for the Confederacy"
is about the most absurd thing that I've read on this site.
Biden is going nowhere on the Dem side, they loathe him almost as much as they loathe Lieberman, so it won't matter, but it'll take better than that to equate him with Lott advocating for segregation.
The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit. Somerset Maugham
He was celebrating the birthday of the first Southern senator to hire a Black page, who was in the process of dying at the time. Strom lived a long life after his presidential campaign.
www.race42008.com
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
http://gamecock.townhall.com
is you not understanding anything about Lott or the situation where he made the comment that so offended the easily offendable.
_______________________________
If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"?
I've read on this blog.
Why don't you try actually correcting me with facts next time?
The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit. Somerset Maugham
because this is their fault. They won't go after Biden with even 1/100th of the effort they put into Lott or 1/1000 of the effort they put into macacapalooza. Just like those 2 incidents, this really means nothing, but it must be pounced on by us - for the media will sweep this under the rug. And honestly I would be fine with that - if they didn't have a double standard for Republicans.
Just like in sports I don't care if the referees call a game tight or let them play, I just want them to call it the same for both teams. The media doesn't.
Two thirds of the world is covered by water, the other third is covered by Champ Bailey
say "Macaca") a few democratic senators. But I don't think that this is anything that would give due cause.
What really did in Lott was when the liberal scandal machine got fired up. If I remember correctly, it began with Al Gore's calls for an apology. It then spread to all of the Democratic presidential candidates calling for an apology. Time and Newsweek were only too happy to help out.
The same periodicals that couldn't find room in their magazines, let alone on their covers, for former Klansman Robert Byrd's "white n*gger" comment, found a whole cover for Mr. Lott's innocuous comment. The cover of Newsweek read "Whitewashing the Past". That was brutal.
Then President Bush, never one to miss an opportunity, fiddled as the Republicans in the Senate saved their own skins by throwing Lott under a bus. A word from Bush would have saved him. But Bush was thinking about his own re-election and of the increased power he'd enjoy with a puppet like Frist to carry out his orders.
at every opportunity, huh?
When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. -- Abraham Maslow
Or avoid them completely. This isn't a Democratic weblog; we don't get to have the luxury of even referencing them in discussions.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
You are reaching on this one. All Biden is guilty of is a bad joke. Lott on the other hand without probably realizing what he was saying was endorsing segragation.
Lott was his own worst enemy, he should have immeadiately came out and apoligized and explained that he was being nice to a dying relic of the old south.He has only himself to blame for his downfall.
Even old strom moved on with the times and became very progressive on race, hell he even had a black daughter!
I can't help but notice that you've been banned before as have two other users/sock puppets at your location.
I also can't help but notice that you've never asked to be reinstated.
Now I've reinstated your ban, if you want to post here and think you have something useful to contribute - a doubtful proposition I'll admit - contact Erick by using the "Contact" link and discuss it with him.
That's why he has bragged about Delaware being a slave state on multiple occasions? Remember, he did the exact same thing on a TV news program several months ago. He was going to do great in the South because he was from Delaware and Delaware was a slave state! What more do Southerners need to know?
---
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
Maybe I am twitching when I should be grinning, but the linked article seems to still be an attack on Southern Republicans. My first impression after reading the article was that the author was implying that the only way a crazy Democrat can ingratiate himself with a bunch of Southerners is to make veiled references of support for slavery.
I don't like Biden, I don't like the gist of the article, and I damn sure don't like yankees coming to the South and talking about slavery.
___________________________________________________________
Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the Gods, and the judge of words...-Inscription on the Royal Tombs at Thebes
I had the same thought you did while reading the excerpts at NRO. I only hesitated to mention it because I was not aware of the political leanings of The State. But the implication is clearly there.
-----------------------
Develop alternatives to existing policies and keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable. Milton Friedman
He was cribbing from one Lott's aides.
:)
It wasn't the Democrats who went after Lott, though they were certainly happy to see him fall; he was knifed by his rivals for the Senate leadership.
Biden is just attempting to implement what the Democrat Master politician Bill Clinton has been able to do so successfully. He was trying to find something to link him to the folks in South Carolina. In his arrogant Biden style, he decided that the good old boys in the south would identify with slavery. So he used Delaware's slavery position in an attempt to buddy up to them. SC is a pretty conservative state and what, I have a plan for Iraq, Joe Biden chose as his common thread demonstrates that he doesn't have a clue how to relate to folks in a conservative southern state.
I agree that he ought to be held to the same standard as Senator Lott, but we all know that the media has a different measuring rod for Republicans than for Democrats. I think the bigger joke here is that Biden is so far off the reservation that he still thinks that slavery will appeal to people in the south in 2006.
------------
"The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
Biden is a putz. I don't think anyone can argue otherwise. And if he wants to run on the "John McCain from the left" platform, I say go for it.
He'll come in squarely behind Kerry as an "electable candidate" who's never going to get elected.
Pretty soon we'll see the two of them riding around in a pickup truck with guns and a Confederate flag looking for votes in South Carolina. Good luck...
The bad news: Conservatism is hard to sell. The good news is that it works.
Biden is a moron, for sure. But what happened to Lott should never happen to anyone, not even someone whom most of us here would like to see reintroduced to private life. We should condemn, not emulate, the actions of the culprits reponsible for Lott's downfall (and I don't mean Lott himself).
Retire Lindsey Graham. Support Thomas Ravenel for Senate 2008
I doubt if but very few democrats in congress have done more for Blacks that Lott and Strom. As we know, and as anyone should know, Strom had lived a life of more than 4 decades after his run for president which included hiring the first Black page for a southern senator, winning a majority of the black vote many times and being endorsed by many prominent Blacks in SC. Lott was trying to make an old man feel god and certainly was referring more to Strom's conservative values and hawkish defense policies and not segregation. Likewise, Lott was defended by most prominent Blacks in Mississippi. It was to the Bush and the GOP's shame that they caved to the PC laws of the Left. Things like this, ie cowardice is why the Dems have power back.
Hope you are well, and you and your family are always in my prayers.
And wasn't it nice that Lindsey managed to use the "V" word a lot and smack down Biden a lot on MTP Sunday.
www.race42008.com
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
http://gamecock.townhall.com
Any of these Republicans who were 'mesmerized' by this guy need to have their heads examined. Someone there should have pointed out that Biden voted against both Roberts and Alito, which means he supports activist leftwing judges who would run roughshod all over the values of South Carolina.
I watched a Road to the Whitehouse on Cspan a year or so ago. First was Biden speaking to some group. He talked about himself, his cronies, told stories, name dropped, bragged about his son following in his footsteps. Gingrich came on right after and talked about ideas and solutions. The contrast was stunning. It scares me that the Bidens, Kerrys, Kennedys of the world continue to get re-elected.
The double standards and bias of the left and MSM media truly disgust me. We have begun a media revolution w/ the growth of talk radio, cable TV, and internet. The liberation of information has a ways to go.
If you always find yourself arguing the exceptions rather than the rule you just might be rapidly sliding down your own slippery slope to irrelevance. -CommonCents
that's a great title
John E.