Obama demanded Lott resignation

Posted on March 22, 2008

Illinois senator couldn’t ‘forgive’ his embrace of segregationist colleague

While Sen. Barack Obama said he couldn’t throw over his friend and pastor of 20 years for racially charged and divisive hate speech, he had no trouble calling for the head of Sen. Trent Lott, the Republican Senate majority leader, for embracing a colleague with a segregationist past on his 100th birthday. On Dec. 12, 2002, Obama, then serving as an Illinois state senator and filling in as host of the Cliff Kelley radio show on WVON, challenged the Republican Party to demand Lott’s resignation.

“It seems to be that we can forgive a 100-year-old senator for some of the indiscretion of his youth, but, what is more difficult to forgive is the current president of the U.S. Senate (Lott) suggesting we had been better off if we had followed a segregationist path in this country after all of the battles and fights for civil rights and all the work that we still have to do,” said Obama. He added: “The Republican Party itself has to drive out Trent Lott. If they have to stand for something, they have to stand up and say this is not the person we want representing our party.”

Eight days later, Lott of Mississippi stepped down as majority leader - not president of the Senate. He had been under fire for his endorsement of Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 1948 segregationist presidential campaign at the South Carolina senator’s 100th birthday party.

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Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don’t forget your summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

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3 Responses to “Obama demanded Lott resignation”

Carnival of Politics on March 23rd, 2008 2:28 pm

You make a valid point, even if it is a very unpopular one. It seems that the current sentiment is an eye for an eye - if your group was previously treated bad, you can act badly now as retribution.

This is an interesting point, please consider submitting it to the Carnival of Politics, a weekly blog magazine about politcs, at http://www.carnivalofpolitcs.com/submit.
No Name Girl on March 23rd, 2008 4:02 pm

Check this out.
http://www.newzity.com/2008/03/23/is-presidential-race-possible-without-a-row-about-race/
joyce on March 24th, 2008 5:16 am

He demands the firing of Lott and Imus for one misplaced comment, but he sticks with this REAL racist of a pastor???? For 20 years??? Give me a break! What blatant hypocrisy.

Obama and his church hit bottom and keep digging.