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December 27, 2002, 12:00 p.m. Lotting, fuming, appreciating, &c.

eard enough about Trent Lott? I thought so, but I thought I’d sound off a bit. I’ll keep it short and bullet-y.

1) What he said was stupid and indefensible. The Thurmond campaign in ’48 was based on one thing: the maintenance of Jim Crow.

2) This was Christmas morning for the Democrats — and Ramadan and Kwanzaa and everything else — because their most cherished pretension is that the Republican party is racist: that they are the party of racial compassion and understanding and that the Republicans are the party of racial callousness and venality.

3) Republicans — particularly those in the Senate — were cowardly. Most wouldn’t take a stand for or against Lott; they were just waiting on the sidelines to see what happened. But this is just politics! you say. Too bad: There’s room for integrity in politics too, as the best have always shown.

4) Lott’s attackers were disgustingly insincere: They know he’s not a bad man — not a racist, not a segregationist. They had to pretend either that they weren’t sure or that Lott was, in fact, a villain. Their motives were a) to damage the GOP or b) to flaunt what they fancied was their own virtue.

5) Bush’s anti-Lott statement in Philadelphia may have been necessary — but it still gnawed. There was some preening involved there. I don’t believe that W. is a better man than Lott. I don’t believe that I am, and I don’t believe that the vast majority of his critics are.

6) He had to go because his position had become politically untenable. But it was a shame: He didn’t deserve to have his career end this way. His has not been an ignominious career. On the contrary, he has been part of a great and glorious movement, the conservative Republican movement that has administered many blessings to America (a strong defense, an assertive foreign policy, market-oriented economics, SDI, innovation in education, reform of entitlements, judicial soundness, a striving toward cultural decency, a voice against abortion, etc.).

7) It shows a great deal of humility on Lott’s part that he is willing to continue serving in the Senate, after this disgrace. I remember, as a child, being amazed that John Quincy Adams, after being president of the United States, sat in the House of Representatives for 20-plus years. I wonder whether my own ego would permit it. I hope so. But . . .

8) If I could ban one expression in life, it might be, “Perception is reality.” I have always hated those words. No, reality is reality, and perception is perception. If the perception and the reality don’t match, it is up to conscientious people to right the wrong: to bring perception (or understanding, if you like) into line with reality. It should be unacceptable to throw up one’s hands and say, “Perception! What’re you gonna do?”

9) Everywhere, it was said that Republicans “exploit race.” Are you kidding? It is practically the reason for being of the Democratic party to exploit race. That’s one of the reasons — maybe the main one (apart from its stance on the Cold War in the last stage of that struggle) — I think so little of it. To cite just one of ten million examples, Al Gore stood in front of the NAACP and bellowed, “They don’t even want to count you!” He was referring to the skepticism of certain Republicans about a method called “sampling” in the Census.

10) People just love to say that there are no Republican blacks in Congress. I say what I always say (futilely): that Republicans nominate blacks and the Democrats work doubly hard to defeat them. They consider it a special affront: that the GOP should have a black nominee, or that a black person should think outside the box in which the Left insists on placing him. When Gary Franks was in Congress, the Democrats couldn’t wait to get rid of him — he was a personal rebuke to them. And they did — get rid of him. When Bill Lucas was the Republican nominee for governor in Michigan, no one in the national press cared. He would have been “the first black governor since Reconstruction” — but that phrase wasn’t trotted out until a Democrat (a black Democrat) was nominated in Virginia (and that was Doug Wilder — whose “black” credentials were certainly no better than Lucas’s).

11) The White House got the majority leader of its choice: Bill Frist. But I hope that Frist will remember he’s a Republican too — not just an agent of the White House. And the administration’s agenda is not necessarily the Republican agenda. For instance, I know of no Republicans outside the area of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue who think it’s a good idea to enact Ted Kennedy’s education fantasies.

12) I could go on, and on, but haven’t you had enough? (Incidentally, that was the slogan — the pithy and ingenious slogan — of the GOP in 1946, after what must have seemed like a hundred years of Democratic rule: “Had Enough?” )

In a Lott-related article in the New York Times, the famous left-liberal professor Michael J. Sandel said, “A whole society can be wrong, like the one that supported segregation. Just because a practice or behavior was widely accepted at some point in history doesn’t make it right.”

As I read those words, I wondered, “Will people someday say that about legal abortion on demand? Or will they ever say it about the unions’ education monopoly we’ve allowed?”

So, Time magazine has honored the “whistleblowers” — their People of the Year. Funny, but they never honored Linda Tripp.

I quote from the indispensable journalist Fiamma Nirenstein, who has worked so hard to make the West more aware of what is happening in the Arab world:

“Seek death and you will be given life,” is the slogan that appears on television broadcasts from the Palestinian Authority, after a short clip showing scenes of blood and dead children, followed by one of children playing.

The slogan also appears on the cover of a disturbing brochure from Palestinian Media Watch, which has its headquarters in Jerusalem.

The material the group collected on a disk is even more shocking. In it, a reporter interviews two 11-year-old girls on television. They’re modern, easygoing, sweet girls, but when the reporter asks little Walla if she thinks that shahada, martyrdom, is nice, she answers: “It’s beautiful! Everyone wants it. What can be better than going to heaven?”

What do you think is better, the journalist continues, peace and full rights for the Palestinians, or martyrdom? “Martyrdom,” Walla answers. “I’ll get all my rights after I become a martyr.”

Swell — and what the Israelis, and we, and sensible Arabs, are up against.

A truly arresting headline from the New York Sun in Dec. 26’s edition: “Burqa-clad Bombers Kill Three, Wound 11 in Attack on Church: Pakistani Officials Say Attackers Fled.”

Another headline? This is from the feisty, entertaining, partisan tabloid The New York Post. It refers to the chief party of the Left in Israel: “Labor Party’s Platform Aims to Appease”! Now, that’s bias — but at least admitted bias, unlike most of the media’s bias.

I was awfully moved reading about a march in Basque country, directed against the longtime terrorist group ETA. Here’s what the Associated Press said:

Tens of thousands of people marched in silence through the coastal city of Bilbao yesterday to demand the dissolution of the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

The noon rally was convened by the Basque regional government, run by the moderate Basque Nationalist Party, which says it favors independence through peaceful means and rejects ETA and its 34-year-old campaign of bombings and shootings.

As I read that, I just ached for what could be, but is not, in the Arab world. That’s exactly what they need. And isn’t it especially moving, somehow, that these tens of thousands marched “in silence” — a deafening contrast to the bombs set off, and the guns fired, by the murderous thugs of ETA?

Michigan’s John Engler is taking his leave, after twelve successful, fascinating, and instructive years as governor. Let me make one quick (and favorite) point about him: Most career politicians, in my observation, are Big Government people. They are Democrats, socialists, statists. But Engler has never done anything but politics — he was elected to the state legislature when he was in college! And he is one of the most valuable free-marketeers, deregulationists, and anti-statists we have.

A theme I have always harped on: If the anti-statists leave the field of politics and government to the statists — as is their (our) inclination, no doubt — we lose, badly. The Friedmanite in government is a priceless thing.

You remember how I was griping, the other day, about the utter triumph of “Happy Holidays” over “Merry Christmas”? Well darned if a column making exactly that point didn’t appear in the New York Times. First the Grey Lady publishes a column saying that maybe — just maybe — Tiger Woods shouldn’t have to boycott the Masters. And now this.

Is this the Apocalypse or something?

A comment I dearly love, from a book review by Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr. in the Wall Street Journal: “In a system of majoritarian rule with no protected rights, democracy is just two wolves and a sheep deciding what is for lunch.”

There should have been a contraction there — “what is” is way too stiff — but it’s a wonderful line.

Such a moving report in the ongoing Japanese-abductees saga: “Last week, in a symbolic break, Hitomi Soga and the other Japanese returnees finally removed their North Korean loyalty badges, small portraits of Kim Il Sung, the former North Korean leader.”

Ripping off an “A” couldn’t have been so exhilarating.

Did you spot that photo of Gen. Richard B. Myers signing a flag for a lieutenant colonel in Qatar? I mean, can you do that? I guess you can — the guy’s a general, and I bet he was a Boy Scout. Probably Eagle!

The radical and criminal Sonny Carson is dead. And one of the things that leapt out at me from his obit was the name of his son: Lumumba Carson. Of course!

Does Patrice Lumumba University still exist in Moscow? I wonder. After all, Lenin — destroyer of the century — is still on display.

I have always chafed at nonsensical transliteration — for example, we’re supposed to call President Roh — South Korea’s newly elected leader — President No. (Does he have a Ph.D.? With an eye to James Bond, he could be Dr. No!) (Then again, Jesse Helms was “Senator No” — Senator Roh?)

If I had more time, I’d start a For Common Sense in Transliteration committee. And eternally, I’m reminded of Arsenio Hall’s complaint about the spelling/pronunciation of Sade (moniker of the pop singer): “That’s like me saying, ‘My name is B-o-b, but I pronounce it ‘linoleum.’”

(Note to all itchy letter-writers: Yes, yes, I know about the celebrated Monty Python moment, thank you.)

Over Christmas, I spotted a sign in a former colonial holding of Britain: “No Loitering, No Begging, No Molesting.” I enjoyed seeing that original usage of that final word: to annoy or disturb.

Finally, I could have hugged the steward — flight attendant, whatever — who said, as the plane I was on was in its descent, “Folks, we’re fixin’ to land.”

Long live regionalisms, and the gorgeous variety of English! If I were an MLA type, I’d say “Englishes”!

(Incidentally, if you ever hear me say “musics” — one of my least favorite words — please summon the men in the white coats.)