I don't believe that Trent Lott is really a racist. After all, that would require that he actually believes in something.

Yeah, the "Lott" puns are getting a little strained; I think Acidman used up the last good one with "Vacant Lott", and when you find yourself trying to do a Sodom and Gomorrah pun, it's time to give up.

But just think of all the punnish fun we'll have if Lott is succeeded by Bill Frist: "Frist Clenched in Anger"; "Frist Fight", "What's on Second, Who's on Frist", "FristWatch", etc.

UPDATE 11-Dec-2002: Dammit, Jonah used my title, or something close to it. We need some kind of pun registration system, with mandatory background checks, waiting periods, and so on.

Jonah touches -- a bit more gracefully -- on the same point I made, that Lott almost certainly isn't a racist, but he isn't much of anything else either. And that that was the reason conservatives weren't coming to his defense, where they would have gone to the mat for a more principled and competent leader. Read it.