Andrew Sullivan on Trent Lott:

TRENT LOTT MUST GO: After his disgusting remarks at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party, it seems to me that the Republican Party has a simple choice. Either they get rid of Lott as majority leader; or they should come out formally as a party that regrets desegregation and civil rights for African-Americans. Why are the Republican commentators so silent about this? And the liberals? (Josh Marshall, to his credit, states the obvious. And Bill Kristol, to his great credit, expressed disbelief.) And where's the New York Times? Howell Raines is so intent on finding Bull Connor in a tony golf club that when Bull Connor emerges as the soul of the Republican Senate Majority Leader, he doesn't notice it. And where's the president? It seems to me an explicit repudiation of Lott's bigotry is a no-brainer for a "compassionate conservative." Or simply a decent person, for that matter. This isn't the first piece of evidence that Lott is an unreconstructed racist. He has spoken before gussied-up white supremacist groups before. So here's a simple test for Republicans and conservative pundits. Will they call Lott on this excrescence? Or are they exactly what some on the Left accuse them of?

Sullivan reminds me of someone who wallows in the mud and then suddenly notices that one of his fellow mud-wallowers happens to have a little bit of dirt on his cheek. He then gets upset that his fellow mud-wallowers aren't equally upset at the dirt on said cheek. He does, unfortunately, have a point about the Democrats in this matter. They have been so cowed by the label of "politically incorrect" that they are unwilling to speak out against an offense that is so deserving of public condemnation. I guess Andy's fellow mud-wallowers have done their job to well. To bad it took him so long to notice the nature of the company he keeps.