The Hindu : Bush rebukes Lott on segregation remarks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 14, 2002

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International

Bush rebukes Lott on segregation remarks

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington Dec. 13. In what is turning into a major controversy even within the Republican Party, the U.S. President, George W Bush, has come out very forcefully saying that what the Senate incoming Majority Leader, Trent Lott, said on the issue of segregation was `offensive' and out of the mainstream spirit of the country. Mr. Lott has been coming under intense pressure ever since he argued that America would have been better off if it had listened to what the Senator, Strom Thurmond, had to say while running for President in 1948. He was speaking at Mr. Thurmond's 100th birthday celebrations last week. Mr. Thurmond ran on a segregationist platform.

"And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either'', Mr. Lott said. That was more than enough to start a political firestorm with many Democrats — African Americans especially — calling upon Mr. Lott to step down as the leader of the Republican party.

Though Mr. Lott immediately said his words were `terrible' and `insensitive' and something that came on the spur of the moment from his head and not the heart, some Democrats looked at it differently — that the Mississippi politician spoke what had been inside him for a long time.

The White House, over the last few days, did not show any inclination to get involved too much in the controversy but with many within the Grand Old Party feeling quite uncomfortable with Mr. Lott's remarks, the President decided to get involved and in a fashion that would both distance himself from Mr. Lott as well as looking for ways for the controversy to subside.

And Mr. Bush chose an audience in Philadelphia on Thursday that had many minority and religious leaders.

"Any suggestion that the segregated past was acceptable or positive is offensive and it is wrong'', Mr. Bush remarked to a standing ovation from the multi-racial audience Mr. Lott's remarks "do not reflect the spirit of our country''.

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Bush rebukes Lott on segregation remarks