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Tied to Racist Group |
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By Jack Nichols
Republican Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, although his spokesman initially denied it, has also given a speech to the Council of Conservative Citizens. Lott's written contributions have appeared— even in 1998 -- in that racist organization's publication, Citizens Informer. "Before the senior senator from Mississippi sits in judgment of anybody, most of all the president," suggests syndicated columnist Colbert I. King, a member of the Washington Post's editorial team, "Lott's colleagues ought to pass fresh judgment on him." The Southern Poverty Law Center, a watchdog group, calls the Council of Conservative Citizens "the reincarnation of the infamous White Citizens Councils" of the 1950s. Many of its members also belong to the Klu Klux Klan, according to the Law Center. Senate Leader Lott along with Rep. Tom DeLay and House Leader, Rep. Dick Armey— were among leading Republicans who, last summer, publicly attacked homosexual love and affection as a "sin" and backed up references to gay men and lesbians as akin to kleptomaniacs and alcoholics. Immediately following these inflammatory statements, the White House Press Secretary denounced Senator Lott's commentary, saying: "How difficult it is to get business done in Washington sometimes when you're dealing with people who are so backward in their thinking. For over 25 years, it's been quite clear that sexual orientation is not an affliction. It is not a disease. It isn't something that is part of defining one's sexuality. And the fact that the Majority Leader has such views, apparently, consistent with some who are fairly extreme in his party, is an indicator of how difficult it is to do rational work in Washington." Now, suddenly, it has become clear that a number of Senate and Congressional principals who have been eager to implement the impeachment process against the U.S. president are not only homophobic but racist in a manner that was typical of many politicians in the South more than 25 years ago.
According to the Law Center's Intelligence Project director, Joe Roy: "The CCC has tried for years to pass itself off as a respectable, mainstream organization…but the fact is that this group is shot through with white supremacist views, members and political positions." A CCC stalwart, H. Millard, writing about interracial mingling for the Citizens Informer, says: "Those élites pushing for this neo-melting pot should leave their fou fou dining rooms and talk to their chef who will probably tell them that you can't throw every ingredient into the pot or the recipe will be ruined and what will emerge will just be a slimy brown mass of glop. . . . The problem for white people is that since they're only 10 percent of the humans on Earth, they are going to have to struggle mightily to survive the Neo-Melting Pot and avoid being part of the brown glop." In a 1992 Greenwood, Mississippi speech Lott told CCC members: "The people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy. Let's take it in the right direction, and our children will be the beneficiaries." In spite of the fact that both Senator Lott and Rep. Barr both renounced the Council of Conservative Citizens after it was discovered they'd addressed the CCC meetings, as late as 1997 Lott was pictured smiling in the Citizens Informer along with the CCC's national officers, CEO Gordon Lee Baum, William D. Lord, Jr. and Tom Dover. The most recent 1998 issue of the Citizens Informer contains Lott's column, side by side with offensive racial commentaries. Related Stories from the GayToday Archive: Impeachment Supported by Log Cabin Republican Leader Kenneth W. Starr: Investigating Private Sexual Behavior The Politics of Intimacy Related Sites: Council of Conservative Citizens Washington Post GayToday does not endorse related sites. |
