On His Own Petard?
In 2002, during the Lott-Thurmond scandal, Senator Dodd of Connecticut lit a petard, an explosive. Remember when Lott said we’d all be better off had Thurmond been elected president in 1948? There was a racist element, since Thurmond ran on a segregationist plank.
Well, Dodd said that if a Democrat had said such an insensitive thing, within “several hours” there would have been a unanimous call for him to leave office. Well, a few weeks ago on the floor of the Senate, Democrat Dodd said that West Virginia’s Robert Byrd would have been a great senator at any time in U.S. history. Trouble is, Byrd just happened to have been a card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan in earlier days.
Not surprisingly, the same conservatives of African ancestry who objected to Lott’s comment objected to Dodd’s. Oddly, however, the doors of the Senate haven’t burst open, and Dodd hasn’t been hoisted out. His old political statement turns out to be a bad prediction. The Democrats don’t police their own like he said. Why? He’s up for reelection.
Maybe Democrats are willing to let the voters decide given Dodd’s mountain of incumbent advantages. Or perhaps it just strikes people as goofy to kick out one politician for praising another, no matter how vile either of them may be. Or maybe the charge of racism only counts against Republicans. Whatever the reason for the lack of haste, it’s a pity Dodd’s still in office. We wouldn’t miss him if he flew out the door. Or Byrd, either!
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
