As longtime readers know

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As longtime readers know, TPM sometimes likes to leaven the seriousness of political talk with an occasional contest or game. So how ’bout this one.

One of the things Trent Lott has gotten in trouble for was a 1984 interview he gave to the ‘neo-confederate’ magazine Southern Partisan. That — in case you don’t remember — is the magazine which has questioned whether the non-white races are capable of democratic self-government and taken what you might call a rather too open-minded attitude toward whether or not the murder of Abraham Lincoln was a good thing. Happily, henceforth the bar will be set higher, it seems: any cavorting with crypto-racist whackjobs will simply be beyond the pale.

Now, which very-nationally-prominent Republican politician, as recently as 1998, told Southern Partisan

Southern Partisan: On the local and national front, we have another effort at twisting meanings and twisting history. It’s this idea of national history standards …

Republican Politician X: Revisionism is a threat to the respect that Americans have for their freedoms and liberty that was at the core of those who founded this country, and when we see George Washington, the founder of this country, called a racist, that is just total revisionist nonsense, a diatribe against the values of America. Have you read Thomas West’s book ‘Vindicating the Founders’?

Southern Partisan: I’ve met Professor West, and I read one of his earlier books, but not that one.

Republican Politician X: I wish I had another copy: I’d send it to you. I gave it away to a newspaper editor. West actually disassembles all of these malicious attacks the revisionists have brought against our founders. Your magazine also helps set the record straight. You’ve got a heritage of doing that, of defending Southern patriots like [Robert E.] Lee, [Stonewall] Jackson and [Jefferson] Davis. Traditionalists must do more. I’ve got to do more. We’ve all got to stand up and speak in this respect or else we’ll be taught that these people were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted agenda.

P.S. Extra credit points for identifying the mysterious ‘perverted agenda’.

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