Stephen F. Hayes, staff writer

"IT IS NOT A SMALL THING for one of the half-dozen most prominent political leaders in America to say that our problems are caused by integration and that we should have had a segregationist candidate," said former Vice President Al Gore on CNN's "Inside Politics" yesterday. "That is divisive and it is divisive along racial lines."

Gore was referring to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's tribute late last week to Strom Thurmond, who ran for president as a segregationist Dixiecrat in 1948. And Gore, who knows a thing or two about "being divisive along racial lines," is right. Said Lott: "I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

Lott, asked about his comments later, replied through a spokesman: "This was a lighthearted celebration of the 100th birthday of legendary Senator Strom Thurmond. My comments were not an endorsement of his positions of over 50 years ago, but of the man and his life."

But that attempt at clarification didn't work, principally because it clarified nothing. For one thing, Lott's original comments were, in fact, a direct endorsement of Thurmond's positions 50 years ago. That's what made them so stunning. Read them again: "I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

What, to raise just one of the dozens of possible questions, were the "problems" we would have avoided by electing a segregationist in 1948? And to raise another, why would Mississippians, years after even Thurmond has seemingly repudiated his repugnant views, still be "proud" of that vote?

Lott hasn't answered those questions or any others. But in a statement issued last night, he offered an apology. "A poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past. Nothing could be further from the truth and I apologize for my statement to anyone who was offended by it."

The contrition, though late, helps. Everyone makes mistakes, and even Tom Daschle was in a forgiving mood yesterday. "There are a lot of times when he and I go to the microphone and would like to say things we meant to say differently," Daschle said when asked about Lott's comments. "And I'm sure this was one of those cases for him, as well."

But let's see what Daschle says in two years. As Gore's opportunistic comments suggest, the damage from Lott's tribute may already be done, and it comes at a time when issues of race are once again coming to the fore.

The Supreme Court last month agreed to hear arguments in two lawsuits challenging racial preference admissions at the University of Michigan. The case will surely stoke the most heated public discussion of the issue--which sits at the heart of racial politics in America--since Californians passed Proposition 209 in 1996, banning preferences in that state.