More on Lott: I think his loose affiliation with the Council of Conservative Citizens is far more troubling than his comments on Strom Thurmond. His statements are just too general to be pinned down as racist. Maybe he was passionate about some other aspect of Thurmond's platform which overshadow issues of race in Lott's mind. I think everything he's done, while looking suspicious, can be given a non-racist interpretation. He certainly isn't sensitive to minority interests.

Perhaps the only explanation of his association with the CCC is that he didn't know all the details about that organization. And one could argue that a person in his position should make it his business to know. Maybe his stance on Bob Jones university was genuinely motivated by a deeply held principle separation of church and state.

I won't be sorry to see him go, I just think that the label "racist" is too lightly tossed around without adequate cause. And when someone gets branded a racist, it sticks. There is no possible defence. Once someone calls you that, that's what you are. There's not even much room for rehabilitation unless you do something truly saintly. Though in many cases it seems as though reformed racists get much more respect than people who insist that they never were racist.

The claims made against Lott have to do with small statements made decades apart, and with policy issues that are less than a drop-in-the-bucket of race issues. Call him a fallen arch-conservative, and good riddance if he goes, but I say give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their innermost attitudes.