Random Thoughts on 

The Trent Lott Affair

By Junious Ricardo Stanton

I was attending a local council meeting last night and a neighbor and councilwoman seated next to me stated quite proudly, "Well we got rid of Trent Lott." I responded "We didn't get rid of him Bush and the White House got rid of him, his own party stabbed him in the back and kicked him to the curb." Undaunted she responded, "Yeah, but the Civil Rights organizations helped put the pressure on him and Bush had to get rid of him." 

At that point I realized she was clueless about what went down, how Bush used statements Lott made as an excuse to rid himself of a man who really wasn't in his league as far as being a world class thief, warmonger and drug dealer. Ponder this, George W. Bush the man who lays wreaths at monuments to the Confederacy publicly rebuked Trent Lott for statements he has repeatedly made about Strom Thurman, how if he had been elected president in 1948 the nation would be "better off." 

Bush used a photo op in Philadelphia where he was promoting his "Faith Based Initiatives" at Bright Hope Baptist Church an African-American congregation in the heart of the North Philadelphia ghetto and later at a luncheon attended by blacks and whites at Philadelphia's Marriott Hotel to set Lott up for the kill.  Once Bush made his comments the jackals and hell hounds in the press and Republican Party were unleashed on the unsuspecting Lott who thought Bush had his back. (Notice except for the reactionary and impotent Black Congressional Caucus, no key Democratic leaders demanded Lott step down.)  Once Bush gave the signal the acquiescent press notably the New York Times Op-Ed (since when has the New York Times cared about white people being insensitive about our issues?) and key Republicans started calling for Lott's ouster or suggesting he should step down. 

In subsequent public comments Bush stated he wasn't going to get involved, knowing full well by not defending or supporting Lott or providing White House back up, he (Bush) was sounding Lott's death knell. Poor Lott was forced to further humiliate himself by going on BET to plead his case, an attempt to defend the indefensible. ( How would you like to go on national TV to defend yourself against  stupidly racist and career threatening remarks?)  It was a no win position. 

Not surprising, Lott made things worse for himself and the crescendo calling for his resignation grew louder. Bush turned his back on Lott and left him hanging. By Thursday Lott  knew he was done, he started publicly saying the White House did him in. The next day Lott resigned.

Check this out, Bush publicly demands Lott apologize and behind the scenes his Chief Advisor Karl Rove works to oust Lott based on statements he's made over the years but Bush said nothing when Attorney General John Ashcroft attended a pro Confederacy rally and called Jefferson Davis "a great patriot"? Why didn't Bush demand Ashcroft apologize? Ask yourself why hasn't Bush asked the Joint Chiefs or the Director of the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency or FAA to apologize to the AmeriKKKan public for their failures on 9-11? 

Why has Bush not pushed for a thorough investigation of 9-11 or fired anyone in the military, intelligence community or FAA over that fiasco?  Will the Republican Party be any different under Dr William Frist's leadership? Don't count on it. Republicans don't give a hoot about black folks, our feelings, our human or civil rights; that was all a ruse to get rid of Trent Lott. Remember it was black folks Jeb Bush disenfranchised in Florida, don't go for the okie-doke. William Frist's voting record is almost identical to Lott's. He's conservative, meaning he wants to turn the clock  back to the 1800's socially. So what is Bush' attraction to Frist?

Well like Bush's Frist's family is rich, they own a lot of hospitals and they have bilked Medicare out of almost a billion, that's with a "B" dollars. They have agreed to repay the government $400,000,000 (some reports say as much as 880 million).  Massive fraud like this is right up Bush's alley.  Remember Dubeyah's brother Neil was a major player in the Savings and Loan fiasco in the '80's. Neil was the front man for the family in the Silverado Savings and Loan Co scandal that defrauded the shareholders and cost US taxpayers almost a billion dollars. The corporate owned media never talks about that do they? Wonder why?  Bush and Frist are kindred spirits, while Trent Lott was just a Mississippi red neck. 

The White House is saying Frist will help push Bush's Health Care agenda.  If things follow the usual script the Bush-Frist marriage will open the floodgates of campaign money from pharmaceutical and health insurance companies into the Bush coffers. Their contributions will do for health care and prescription drugs what Enron did for energy and what defense contractor campaign contributions have done for the War on Terrorism and the Carlyle Group's stock portfolio.  

Lott was a liability, he was the son of a sharecropper, a wanna be, he was out of his league. Unfortunately for him he was not an elitist cold blooded white collar crook like Bush; so he had to go to make way for the next round of corporate rip offs.

POSITIVELY BLACK (December 23, 2002)