In the Senate, There’s a Lott to Think About

Robert Scheer’s Dec. 17 commentary, “Lott’s Love Affair With Racism,” may tell us why Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and others think the way they do but it omits something larger and more important. The issue isn’t whether the senator’s umpteenth apology is sincere, whether his policy shift on a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday or affirmative action is political cynicism or even if he is fit to lead the Senate. Lott did not become Senate majority leader in a vacuum. He was chosen by his fellow Republicans -- colleagues with whom he has shared meals, opinions and ideologies daily, and for many years. Colleagues who know him gave him this most important and powerful position.

What Lott said in just a few words speaks volumes about the Republican leadership in this country.

Jay Aronow

Oxnard

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I applaud Sen. Don Nickles’ (R-Okla.) courageous -- if potentially self-serving -- challenge to Lott’s continuing leadership of Senate Republicans (Dec. 16). As a middle-of-the-road Democrat who frequently crosses party lines, Lott’s praise for a failed segregationist presidential campaign reinforced the queasiness I frequently experience when attempting to evaluate the “behind closed doors” attitudes of many Republican leaders on important social issues. Lott’s apparent nostalgia for a discredited racist past at least calls into question his fitness to continue serving as a national leader. Notwithstanding his apologies, Lott’s colleagues should give careful consideration to the statement they will be making to the nation if they choose to retain him to serve as Senate majority leader.

Lorin Fife

Valley Village

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Why is it that so many Republican senators lined up to lynch Bill Clinton for lying about marital infidelity but when Lott, their own leader, announces that America would be better off if blacks still sat in the back of the bus, they don’t utter a word? They impeached Clinton for his “moral depravity” but they seem to have no problem with the fact that Lott is a good-old-boy racist. I smell a double standard.

Brian Foyster

Los Angeles

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Lott claimed in his Dec. 16 Black Entertainment Television interview that he wasn’t referring to segregation when he said the country “wouldn’t have had all these problems” if Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) had become president. He then later said he “made a mistake” with those remarks. If he wasn’t talking about segregation, then what exactly was his mistake? Accidentally offending an entire race of people or getting caught doing it?

David Mickel

Los Angeles

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Now, the whole world has seen the Lott Mess monster.

Jack Bailey

Studio City