“A poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embrace the discarded policies of the past. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I apologize to anyone who was offended by my statement.” … That’s the apology Senator Trent Lott issued tonight in the face of the mounting controversy — 
some of it blog-borne — over his endorsement of Strom Thurmond’s segregationist presidential platform from 1948.
In such a situation one doesn’t want to appear to be flogging a dead horse even after the guy has a apologized. And to me this issue transcends partisanship so I especially would not want to appear to be doing that. But frankly this strikes me as a pretty feeble apology. He won’t say what ‘policies’ he’s talking about. He won’t say they’re wrong, just that they were ‘discarded’.
It’s probably too much to ask for him to get down on his knees and confess his sins. But given Lott’s history of flirtation with neo-segregationist politics and the seriousness of the original statement, something a bit more explicit and specific was and is in order.
Really, why so grudging? Why so hard to say that he knows, like everyone else knows, that segregation was wrong? It’s like getting blood from a stone. If Ron Bonjean needs some help drafting a new apology, I refer him back to my proposed statement from yesterday.
