Word: lott
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Last Sunday's New York Times Magazine featured a cover story on Trent Lott, the Republican Senate majority leader from Mississippi, in which Lott is described as "gracious and conservative," though the writer warns that he may have trouble managing his more partisan colleagues. Lott may not have the ideological fire to satisfy the right wing of his party; instead, he is perhaps better characterized as a pragmatist...
...image of Lott as a moderate may be challenged by his actions during the 1960s. Lars Erik Nelson's editorial in the Jan. 29 New York Daily News describes a pending lawsuit that is forcing the release of the names of people who were involved with the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. This commission was a racist organization that was created in the 1950s to defend states rights and white purity against desegregation. It members included redneck sheriffs and snitches, and it financially aided White Citizens Councils, another perversely racist organization whose members wore suits instead of sheets...
Nelson claims that Trent Lott aided the Sovereignty Commission during the 1960s and is probably classified in the lawsuit as a state actor, a member or informant who served as a source of information. If these allegations are true. Trent Lott is a white supremacist--or at least he used to be. The Times article states that as late as 1983, Lott opposed the creation of a national holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr." The Daily News editorial says that Lott "praises--as [he] is warmly praised by--the Council of Conservative Citizens, widely regarded as the successor...
However, even if Trent Lott's association with a hate group is proved, his image as a genial, even "gracious" politician will probably not suffer much damage, at least not in the South. The early, Klan membership of Sen. Robert, Byrd (D, W.Va.) has not hurt his career. The Sovereignty Commission agent who is indirectly responsible for the murder of the three civil rights activists in 1964 is now a staff member for Rep. Mike Parker, another Mississippi Republican. Even the two old and grizzled, foes of racial equality, Jesse Helms (R, N.C.) and Strom Thurmond (R, S.C.), continue...
...February 5, I need to accept or decline. The once distant deadline is now approaching at the speed of light. The option to agree is seductive. I dream of spending a semester in Washington working for Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott (R-MS), or touring Europe. Whether or not my dream is feasible is another issue. The whole idea would then be perfect--seven semesters of academic study, one of real life experience...