Trent Lott on Strom Thurmond:

"You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today."

What? Haven't we already discussed this. Well. No. You see this quote was not the famous one from a few days back. It was, instead, uttered back in 1980:

Lott's Praise for Thurmond Echoed His Words of 1980 WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 — Trent Lott, the Republican Senate leader who faces mounting criticism for his comment last week that the nation would have been better off had Strom Thurmond been elected president in 1948, expressed a nearly identical sentiment two decades ago. After a fiery speech by Mr. Thurmond at a campaign rally in Mississippi for Ronald Reagan in November 1980, Mr. Lott, then a congressman, told a crowd in Jackson, "You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today." ...

But I guess that was back when Lott was young and irresponsible.