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Copyright Ó
2005 by Rodney G. Graves, all rights reserved.
The Lott Precedent Does anyone remember the intemperate and insensitive comments for which Senator Trent Lott was, quite correctly, forced from his leadership position in the Senate? Senator Lott, in praising the retiring Strom Thurmond, said some really stupid and insensitive things. Despite a prompt apology, he was forced to resign his position of leadership in the Senate. Whether from calculation or real outrage, the Republicans did the right thing. How then do Senator Durbin's comments, comparing the treatment of detained illegal combatants at Camp X-Ray to the three most murderous and vile regimes of the twentieth century, stack up against Senator Lott's transgression? Well, let's see. 0 dead at Camp X-Ray to something on the order of 30,000,000 dead at the hands of the regimes which Senator Durbin chose as comparators. 30,000,000 to 1 would be a ludicrous comparison. 30,000,000 to 0 is an insult to the intelligence of the audience and a blatant slander against all Americans. In which case, the remarks by Durbin are something on the order of seven orders of magnitude worse than the reprehensible comments by Senator Lott. The late and weasel worded apology (which Squishy demolishes) has saved the Senator from the censure or worse which he deserves. But there remains the Lott Precedent. An insensitive transgression of this magnitude demands in compensation that Durbin surrender his position of leadership. Failure to do so will be the best possible indicator of the real ethical and moral standards of the Democratic Party, no matter how they try to spin it.
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