The American Spectator

Mean and Ignoble : /p> p>R. Emmett Tyrrell calls the Trent Lott affair a “media feeding frenzy” but it’s really more accurate to call them a nasty swarm of buzzards or vultures picking a dead carcass clean. No more, no less. When the bones are devoid of meat, the swarm picks up and moves on towards its next victim, and then descends unmercilessly again. The buzzards and their vulture friends pat themselves on the back at cocktail parties and in their news columns for being morally superior to the victim, and for that keen ability to not only pompously call another a “racist”, but to know that the accused has been a racist all his life. It’s contemptible and deeply disgusting, but that’s what passes for a free press these days (excepting a few contributors). That’s why this week the buzzards need the reward of Enemy of the Week. br> — John Patterson br> Ridgewood, NJ /p> p> I remember being disoriented in 1984 after Geraldine Ferraro was nominated and something that seems to have been the opposite side of the media frenzy (described by R. Emmett Tyrrell) was operating. Despite substantial questions concerning her husband’s alleged unsavory business connections, the mainstream media appeared to conclude that it would be unseemly to ask the questions, pronouncing an embargo that was honored during the rest of the campaign — the embargo was effective from her press conference in which she released personal tax returns but not those of her husband’s business’s. (When a reporter pointed to the lack of full disclosure, another quieted him, saying she had done enough.) Never since have believed naively that the real facts are relevant in politics — if anyone disagrees ask the Clintons. br> — J. R. Wheatley /p>

As I have contemplated Trent Lott’s now-famous nostalgic remarks about the glories of the old segregated South, my thoughts have turned to a number of questions. Question number one is, how could one of our best-known politicians, veteran of decades of negotiating political minefields, say something in public which is so incredibly stupid and so potentially damaging to his career?

Then I remembered something. I thought I had read somewhere that Lott was a cheerleader at Ole Miss. If so, this would explain everything.

I did a little research and it’s true, Lott was a cheerleader when he was an undergraduate at the University of Mississippi. The CNN All Politics website adds helpfully that Lott was a “male cheerleader.” That’s good to know. With all the other accusations about Lott’s past, at least we know he wasn’t engaged in cross-dressing while he was leading cheers for the fightin’ Rebels.