Race

AFTER A WEEK of confusion, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott held a press conference Friday in an attempt to clarify his position on segregation. "Segregation is a stain on our nation's soul," said Lott. "Let me be clear: Segregation and racism are immoral."

Stop for a moment and think about that. Almost half a century after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown v.

UPON LEARNING that the Supreme Court had accepted the big affirmative action cases involving her campus, University of Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman said about the only thing that she could, which was that "we are looking forward to presenting our cases." Ms. Coleman's--and Michigan's--problem is the law, and the law tilts pretty plainly against the school's race-conscious admissions policies.

Before the court are lawsuits challenging the policies used by the undergraduate and law schools.

"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.

THE CLOSE OF 2002 brings with it the close of the 150th anniversary of the publication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." But you would hardly have known it from America's premier journals and magazines, which showed little interest in giving "Uncle Tom's Cabin" its due in the course of the year. No other book before or since has had so dramatic an effect on American consciousness--or American history--as Harriet Beecher Stowe's epoch-making novel.

THE COUNTRY IS ON THE BRINK OF WAR, it faces the likelihood of another terrorist attack, and the New York Times is worried that Americans are not paying enough attention to race and gender.

THE DAILY STANDARD welcomes letters to the editor. Letters will be edited for length and clarity and must include the writer's name, city, and state.

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Beth Henary's Things Go Right in Texas does a great job of capturing what happened here in Texas during the 2002 election. As for that "latent Democratic base" of voters, I think they may be in more trouble than just having lost all the state wide races, and control of the legislature.

TUESDAY NIGHT, the Texas GOP delivered for former governor George W. Bush--in grand fashion. Besides holding the governor's mansion and the Senate seat vacated by retiring senator Phil Gramm, the party refused to concede any statewide office to a Democrat, leaving the Democrats' representation at the highest levels of Texas government at zero.

Republicans didn't just beat their opponents; they pummeled them. With 90 percent of precincts reporting, Governor Rick Perry and U.S. senator-elect John Cornyn led their opponents Tony Sanchez and Ron Kirk by 18 and 12 points, respectively.

NO ONE should have been surprised when Terry McAuliffe, head of the Democratic National Committee, released a statement yesterday afternoon suggesting Republicans set out to intimidate minority voters.

THIS AFTERNOON DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe put out an alarming statement:

"We have seen 'anonymous' fliers displayed in predominantly African American communities in Baltimore, MD, with an incorrect Election Day date, warning voters to make sure their parking tickets are paid, their rent is not overdue, and they take care of any outstanding warrants before they go vote.

"A spokesman for the Maryland Republican candidate for Governor Bob Ehrlich was quoted saying their campaign plans include deploying off-duty police officers as poll watchers on Election Day.

"In Hidalgo

PRO-BUSINESS GROUPS in California are railing against a bill that would require businesses and labor organizations to report racial and gender figures to the state every year. The bill's sponsor says it is designed to "put a little pressure" on companies and unions whose demographics don't mirror those of their respective communities. Businesses believe it could provide fresh meat for trial lawyers.

Passed by both legislative houses in late August on party-line votes, AB 1309 awaits signature on California governor Gray Davis's desk.

IN GRUTTER V. BOLLINGER, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati last week upheld racial and ethnic preferences in admissions to the University of Michigan Law School. Liberals are celebrating a rare victory for affirmative action in the courts. However, the more profound impact of Grutter may lie in the manipulation of the court to achieve this outcome, exposed by some of the dissenting judges.

Thus, along with his dissent, Judge Danny J.

SAN FRANCISCO
California is the last place that ought to be embroiled in the slave reparations controversy. Slavery was never legal in the state. There were no plantations. Its ports were not slave trade centers--wrong coast.

Nonetheless, California has become the first state to step into the reparations game. The legislature two years ago passed, and Democratic governor Gray Davis signed, a bill requiring insurers doing business in the state to provide information on any slave policies they or predecessor companies had issued.