I just had another thought on the Lott matter. Let's recall what he said:

I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either.

Now, first of all, Lott was only seven years old when Thurmond ran for President (source WSJ). Therefore, it is a bit of an exageration for Lott to include himself in the "we" when he talks about those in his state who voted for him(*). But, what's more, Lott appears to be claiming that Missippians of today are proud that their state voted for Thurmond. I wonder what his fellow Missippians think about that? (* Hey, they went after Gore for things like this. All's fair...)