WTF Is It Now?!?

The Growing Fire Around Trent Lott
...and around Tom 'Isadora' Daschle.

Byron York of the National Review writes: There are new indications on Capitol Hill that the controversy over Sen. Trent Lott's remarks at the birthday ceremony for Sen. Strom Thurmond might soon swell into a major issue touching leading politicians of both parties.

Speaking at a news conference Tuesday morning, members of the Congressional Black Caucus promised to take far-reaching action over the Lott matter. "The fact is that this is a man who is four heartbeats from the presidency, and we cannot have in 2002 those kinds of views being expressed by someone who...is setting policy," said Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, the incoming chairman of the CBC.

While most of those who spoke at the news conference directed their fire at Lott, Rep. Maxine Waters expanded the issue beyond Lott's words to the reaction of Sen. Tom Daschle and other Democratic leaders.

"I think that Mr. Daschle moved too quickly to explain Mr. Lott," Waters said today. "I consider that this is a Democratic party issue, and to the degree that the Democratic party understands that it must relate to the concerns of African Americans, they will pause and take into consideration what message this and other kinds of statements like this are sending into the African American community. It is not enough to simply defend or to explain these kinds of statements and then at election time talk about why black Americans should turn out in large numbers. So we've got some work to do."

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Texas, expanded the list of those affected by the controversy even further. "Those who don't look like me should be raising their voices," she said. "We want our fellow colleagues, and as well leaders from around the nation, including my good friend President Bush, including the leaders of the religious community and others, to address the questions of marginalizing a very sizable population in this nation. This sends us into a very wrong direction as we begin the 108th Congress."