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Sifting through the wreckage After Lott, What?By Rick Horowitz
The logic of the moment eludes me -- let me count the ways. 1. Once you've read the 97th behind-the-scenes story about how skillfully the White House managed to engineer the removal of the lethally loquacious Trent Lott "without leaving any fingerprints," don't you have to wonder what "without leaving any fingerprints" means? Besides, did anybody actually believe that all those anti-Lott leaks from this virtually leak-proof Bush bunch were just an unfortunate coincidence? That when brother Jeb (not to mention brother Colin) started weighing in during Lott's final days on matters normally deep inside their no-comment zones, it was because they just happened to wake up that morning feeling chatty? Talk about implausible deniability. This was the deal: Get rid of Lott before he does any more damage to the party's already shaky reputation on racial issues, but keep the White House's role a secret so the president doesn't tick off the party's vital yahoo wing. Makes perfect sense -- if you assume that none of those folks will ever stumble across a newspaper or a TV screen. Or think even a little. 2. After you've considered which way the trends are trending, don't you have to question just how much credit the GOP really deserves for its newly declared sensitivity to minorities? Any shift away from decades of campaign code words is a good thing, but wouldn't you know it? The move comes precisely as the population numbers suggest that grabbing up plenty of white voters, but continuing to lose large percentages of increasingly numerous blacks and Hispanics, may not be the winning ticket much longer. In fact, the stories say, if President Bush were to receive in 2004 exactly the same level of support from the various racial and ethnic groups that he received in 2000, he'd be...ex-President Bush. And the Rove said, "Let there be outreach." So now there's the Democratic Party, and the Demographic Party. How touching. 3. Or maybe not so touching. Some people will tell you that the Party Formerly Known as Lincoln's can continue to survive without making major inroads with minority voters as long as they continue to attract suburban, female white voters. And how do they do that? By seeming tolerant and inclusive when it comes to race. The key word, of course, is "seeming." As long as Republicans don't come across -- to white swing voters -- as some unholy mating of Bull Connor and the Imperial Wizard, they're still in the ballgame. Apparently, what minority voters themselves think of Republican policies and tactics that directly affect them isn't nearly as important as what certain paler-skinned voters think. Bizarre? Entirely. Just consider if the roles were reversed. "Campaigning here for black and Hispanic votes, President Bush declared today that his administration had been 'pretty good for soccer moms.'" 4. Is he really just what the doctor ordered? Better than that: He is the doctor -- the surgeon-turned-senator from Tennessee, and Trent Lott's sudden substitute. His party voted him in by acclamation and told him, "Frist, do no harm." So you're probably wondering: Is Bill Frist's voting record on race-related issues much different from Lott's? Not especially. But that doesn't seem to matter to the people who plotted his ascension. He'll be a new look for the party, they're only too happy to announce. No doubt about that -- call it Republicanism with a smiling face. Or is it merely old white in new bottles? Posted 12/24/02.
Have a Ho-Ho-Horowitz Christmas!!
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Rick Horowitz
