Within this excerpt of today’s Washington Times editorial, I have interjected links to related pieces. One is to the editorial the Times mentions and the other shows that Senator Trent Lott’s support of the Fairness Doctrine dates back at least 20 years:
On June 7, Mr. Lott delivered a Senate floor speech in which he lavished praise on Sen. Edward Kennedy, the most fervent liberal advocate of the bill (and whose staff is most likely responsible for writing the parts of the bill that make it easier for illegal-alien gang members and alien absconders to remain in the United States). Mr. Lott attacked critics of the immigration bill as “mice” and accused them of trying to “slither away from this issue.” The Massachusetts Democrat responded by giving Mr. Lott a verbal pat on the head, thanking him for his “constructive and positive attitude.”
…The following week, he spoke to the New York Times about the Senate’s difficulty passing an immigration bill: “Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.” After talk-radio hosts from around the country reacted furiously (and properly so) to Mr. Lott’s menacing tone, the Mississippi Republican complained to The Washington Post over the fact that angry callers protesting the amnesty bill had jammed his phone lines for three weeks. He appeared to suggest that the telephone calls were an effort by ignorant non-Mississippians to “intimidate” him.
During yesterday’s appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Lott was asked about television ads run by NumbersUSA criticizing him for joining with Mr. Kennedy in “selling out Mississippi” by supporting the Senate bill. In response, Mr. Lott’s arguments for the amnesty bill included the following: “We need to make sure we know who these people [illegal aliens who benefit from the amnesty bill] are, where they’re going, that there’s a job for them, that they’re not treated like animals.” Leave aside for a minute the insulting suggestion that if you have an honest disagreement with Mr. Lott over the merits of this bill, you favor treating people in a subhuman way. Mr. Lott’s assertion that the immigration bill will enhance our ability to keep tabs on potential security threats only shows that he knows very little about what is in his bill or is desperately spinning. As we noted in some detail in our lead editorial on Friday (“The Terrorist Facilitation Act of 2007“), the Senate bill includes provisions that will make it absurdly easy for a potential terrorist to obtain a “probationary” visa and create a fraudulent new identity for himself with the assistance of the U.S. government.
READ THE REST of today’s editorial.