Rightwinger speaks out on refusal to sign anti-lynching legislation

[ecstatic]

In the state that led the pack in lynchings (MS), neither Senator signed on to the anti-lynching legislation.

Cochran, though conservative, is thought to be less wildly right-wing than Lott -- what you might call a Mississippi moderate. So why was his name absent from the list of sponsors?

"I'm not in the business of apologizing for what someone else did or didn't do," he told me. "I deplore and regret that lynching occurred and that those committing them weren't punished, but I'm not culpable. Would you apologize for an editorial written by The Washington Post 50 years ago that you disagreed with?"

The trouble with that explanation is that Cochran did sign on as a co-sponsor of bills apologizing for the government's treatment of Native Americans and for the World War II internment of Japanese Americans.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/19/AR2005061900701.html (requires log in)

[tk2kewl]

1. dingbat

the apology isn't intended to be a personal one. it is an apology on behalf on an institution.

[LoZoccolo]

5. And it's more than just a token gesture as well.

It's an acknowledgement of the lessons learned from history by those responsible for taking that institution forward. It's something of a promise that those things won't be allowed to happen again, by the people who have the power to prevent them now. When viewed that way, it's easy to see that it's a real gesture.

[ISUGRADIA]

2. Sad since Mississippi was one of the most rabidly rascist

states and its congressional delegation included some of worst racists including Thomas Bilbo.

[getmeouttahere]

3. And the comparison between....

apologising for lynchings and an editorial is appalling!

[Karenina]

4. Injuns? Japs? Do I HAVE TO?

Well ok. Done.
Nigras, now? Fuggedaboudit!!!
:sarcasm:

[sui generis]

6. yes it's all about him and nobody else

the senators were apologizing ON BEHALF of the senatorial body for senatorial inattention and inactivity during a series of events that took place within memory and within the lifetimes of people who are still alive.

I'm sorry if it seems a bit dehumanizing to categorize republican turds like this as defective humans, but they are.

Their inability to give a damn about anything outside of their own skin and personal benefit may have been a survival trait in their neanderthal ancestors, but has no place in modern "government", where the premise is that you really should care about bigger and more complex issues than your own personal individual guilt. I have nothing but open contempt for people like Cochran - and Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, those two black hearted thugs playing dress up as my so-called "senators" here in Texas.

[BamaLefty]

7. Hatred Still Rules The Day

Damn, it turns my stomach. I'm serious... it's sickening. The world is a bit darker because of people like Thad Cochran and Trent Lott. :(

[fujiyama]

8. No surprise

Mississippi is the most backward state in the union, by almost every indicator.

Fuck him.