Toasted Lott aka et tu, Brute?

Senator Trent Lott has dug himself a big hole. One apology was warranted, two were enough. His daily apologies have earned him an escort out the door by his former colleagues.

Now, I've never been a fan of Senator Lott; I disagree with him on a regular basis on matters of policy. I've often thought that there was a Kluxer look about him, but I figured that was just an unfortunate genetic flaw. Perhaps I was wrong about that - maybe, it seems, his association with the cross-burning types runs deeper than just a creepy feeling on my part. That's too bad for him, and too bad for his home state; too bad for the South in general.

You see, I'm a transplant from the North. Four hundred years of Yankee blood run through these veins, and I know how a lot of Yanks look at the South. It ain't always pretty. Of course, coming from the rural areas of the North, I know that a redneck's a redneck, no matter where he's from, and there are Kluxers everywhere. But the South has an old, bad image that is still hanging around its neck, and Lott just tied it on a bit tighter. I've been living in the South on and off for about four years, and have been here full-time for over two years; I know that the majority of the people I know are not - at least outwardly - anything like the man Lott is now showing himself to be.

Let his colleagues, Cassius, Brutus and the rest, do what they will with him. The rest of us should move on with our lives.