Peggy Noonan is first-rate today on the Lott mess. Here she is answering the objection that Democrats get away with racially insensitive comments all the time, so why should Republicans have to fall on their swords when they screw up:

“Maybe it isn’t fair, but think of it this way: The history of the Republican Party on race is mixed. Yes, that’s true of the Democrats too, but Democrats are perceived today as sympathetic to the movements for

freedom that have marked the past century, and Republicans are not. This

has some implications. It means Republicans have to go out of our way to

show that our hearts are in the right place. But there’s another thing that

is even more important. If we are tougher on ourselves, maybe that’s good.

Why shouldn’t we be tougher on ourselves?

If the Democrats all too often treat race as if it were a card to be played

in a game, and if the Republicans in contrast attempt to struggle through

the issue and be serious and go out of their way to expunge the last

vestiges of the old racial ways, isn’t that something we should be proud

of? History is watching. It will know what we did. What will history think

if it sees a new seriousness on race from the Republican Party? I think it

will say: Good. And I think that matters.”