Despite the ugliness, I am oddly comforted by the uproar over Lott's comments. I've been walking around lately with the horrible sensation of being time-warped back to a darker era, and the fact that this story has yet to die reminds me that, yes, despite everything, there has been progress.

Reading Krugman is always comforting too.

Let's be clear that last week's remarks were in no way out of character. On the contrary, they were entirely consistent with Mr. Lott's statements on many other occasions.

The great majority of Americans don't share Mr. Lott's views. For example, he opposed declaring Martin Luther King day a holiday, telling Southern Partisan magazine that "we have not done it for a lot of other people that were more deserving." Most Americans, I think, believe that King was pretty deserving.

Now it's your turn to fire Trent Lott.

I'm still not sure about Kerry, especially now that Gore seems to be really hitting his stride. Still, he did say Lott has to go. What troubles me is this statement here:


No one has put more effort than George W. Bush into ending the image of the Republican Party as a whites-only haven. For all the disagreement that many African-Americans have with his policies, few can doubt Mr. Bush's commitment to a multiracial America.


I don't doubt that Bush has a tendency towards colorblindness. But he is still far from his goal of promoting the Republicans as "ethnic friendly."

I have mixed feelings about celebrities embracing political movements, although anytime they use their power for good is fine by me.