Herbert Hysterics

I know it's in the interest of liberals and Democrats for the Party of Lincoln to be regarded as the Party of Racists and Other Bad People, but this bit by Bob Herbert is almost as far out of line as Impo-Trent's comments:

But Mr. Lott is not the only culprit here. The Republican Party has become a haven for white racist attitudes and anti-black policies. The party of Lincoln is now a safe house for bigotry. It's the party of the Southern strategies and the Willie Horton campaigns and Bob Jones University and the relentless and unconscionable efforts to disenfranchise black voters. For those who now think the Democratic Party is not racist enough, the answer is the G.O.P. And there are precious few voices anywhere in the G.O.P. willing to step up and say that this is wrong.

That's just not true, and it's racist political hyperbole of the worst sort.

The most strident denunciations of Trent Lott have actually come from conservatives, some of which I've gathered and linked to here.

Impo-Trent does need to resign as majority leader, to be sure, and these sorts of charges are going to attach to every issue leading through 2004 at the very least if Impo-Trent remains (probably even if he steps down, although it's harder to make these charges stick to President Bush).

It's still rather unbelievable to me that Impo-Trent has managed to put his party in full retreat in early December after such an impressive electoral showing in early November.

[Posted at 22:16 CST on 12/12/02] [Link]