Several folks inform me that Salon offers a "day pass" to its premium section. Apparently, you have to click past several screens of advertising but you get access to the whole site for the rest of the day. (As a subscriber, I don't see this offer.) Good way to read the Bill Maher interview…or any of several other interesting articles over there.
This whole brouhaha about Trent Lott's dumb remarks seems to flow from the fact that, basically, nobody has ever liked this guy. Why Democrats don't is pretty obvious, but even Republicans are seizing on this as an opening to dump a lox of a Majority Leader, and to look like they're doing so out of principled, anti-racist sentiment. Trent is now an obstacle to the G.O.P. dream of siphoning off some of that black vote.
Mr. Maher makes a salient point in the aforementioned interview. It's that he got trampled for a remark on his show that was widely misinterpreted. At the same time, Ari Fleischer made his clumsy remark about how people need to "watch what they say" — but he somehow managed to deflect most of the criticism by saying folks were misinterpreting what he said. I think people over-reacted to both statements, reading more into them than was meant. But somehow, it was okay for the official spokesperson for the White House to muddle his sentiments a bit but there was no wiggle room for an unelected, powerless TV comedian. Ultimately, Maher made the same mistake Mr. Lott has now made: He gave the folks who already didn't like him something they could sell as an outrage.
I never thought much of Trent Lott but whatever he is, he's been it for a long time. The people who are suddenly incensed that he may be nostalgic for segregation are like the piano player in the brothel who's suddenly shocked to learn what's been transpiring upstairs. This applies as much to Democrats as it does to Republicans. They treat Strom Thurmond as an elder statesman but condemn Lott for praising the man…