The Talking Points Have Been Issued

And it goes like this: Yeah, segregation might be bad, but the real harm from Lott's comments is that it leaves the GOP vulnerable to unfair and despicable criticism.

Exhibit "A": "Plainly America would not have been well served by the triumph of the segregationist Dixiecrats at a moment when the civil rights movement was coming into its own," says the Wall Street Journal editorial page. "Such a reading gives short shrift not only to the black struggle for equality, but also to the history of both Mr. Thurmond and the GOP. Mr. Lott played right into the hands of opponents who are eager to paint the Republican Party's Southern ascendancy as nothing more than old-fashioned bigotry."

Exhibit "B": "Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has inadvertently provided ammunition to those who would perpetuate the blood libel against conservatism in general and the Republican Party's Southern-based expansion in particular � that it is tainted by bigotry."

That's Phase I. The second phase, already planned: Liberals and Democrats are the real racists. (The Moonie Times jumped ahead in the progam on this one.)