Earl Ofari Hutchinson examines the civil rights records of Lott, Nickles, McConnell and Frist in a commentary in the LA Times, The Grand (Dragon's) Old Party. He finds Nickles more frightening than Lott (he not only voted against Martin Luther King Day, but suggested it be an unpaid holiday celebrated only on a Sunday) and astutely notes,

"These men are not shoot-from-the-lip, bellicose, confrontational race-baiters like Lott. They are quiet, respectable, gray-flannel opponents of civil rights. And this makes them even more terrifying than Lott."

"Yet what's even more frightening is that such men are a big reason the Republicans have resuscitated the party from its century of near extinction in the Deep South."

Hutchinson provides an interesting post-1964 history of the Republicans in the South. As to President Bush, he says:

"President Bush has also subtly stoked the racial fires. He spoke at racially archaic Bob Jones University, ducked the Confederate flag fight and the racial profiling issue and refused to support tougher hate-crimes legislation."

"Then there is his handling of the Lott debacle. When Lott attended a second Strom Thurmond birthday bash at the White House, there is no indication that Bush rebuked Lott for his remarks. It took nearly a week, and a firestorm of public outrage, before Bush finally condemned him."

Hutchinson's conclusion on the future of the Republican Right?

"Lott apologists worry that with him out as Senate leader, the GOP conservative agenda will go to pot. With Nickles, McConnell or Frist, and Bush as gatekeeper of that agenda, there's no danger of that."

He's right about that.