As usual, the media is falling all over itself to report an incidental remark made by a politician, and ignoring more important topics (such as the economy, the erosion of civil rights, and so forth). The current tempest, of course, revolves around Republican leader Trent Lott's praise of Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential bid, an anti-civil-rights, pro-segregation, anti-miscegenation platform.

Republicans are whining that the Democrats have seized upon a minor thing and are trying to make a big issue out of it, and that they're attacking Lott's character rather than debating actual issues like national security — both of which are true, but it's not as if the Republicans are innocent of doing the same exact thing. (One would think that the party which makes a big deal about Christianity would remember that line about "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her".)

Personally, I find the whole thing ridiculous. Lott made the comments by himself; he wasn't speaking in an official capacity for the Republican Party. Why, then, are other Republicans issuing statements about the issue? They didn't speak out on behalf of registered Republican Timothy McVeigh — not that they needed to. If an individual demonstrates that he is a moron, that's his business. The Republican response seems no different from the Democrats who leapt to Bill "Blue Dress" Clinton's defense after it was revealed that he'd stood in front of the camera, looked America right in the eye, wagged his finger angrily and lied to us, insisting that he had not had sexual relations with "that woman".

Personally, I find White House spokesman Ari Fleischer's statement on the matter somewhat disturbing:

"The president, as I said yesterday, understands and knows that America is a much richer and better nation as a result of the changes that have been made to our society involving integration and the improvement of relations between races"

This is so stilted and unnatural-sounding that it comes across as though it's something that had to be explained to Dubya. Surely the President of the United States isn't that much of an idiot.