Smith in hot water for comments on Lott

Republican U.S. Senator Gordon Smith is facing questions today about comments he made on the Senate floor yesterday regarding then-Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott’s 2002 comments about Strom Thurmond’s 1948 Dixiecrat presidential run.

The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein quotes Smith as saying: "I was half way around the world when an event befell Trent Lott that shook me deeply. I was celebrating my re-election and on vacation. I watched over international news as his words were misconstrued, words which we had heard him utter many times in his big warm-heartedness trying to make one of our colleagues, Strom Thurmond, feel good at 100 years old.

“We knew what he meant. But the wolfpack of the press circled around him, sensed blood in the water, and the exigencies of politics caused a great injustice..."

Speaking at a 2002 celebration of Thurmond’s 100th birthday, Lott said: "I want to say this about my state: when Strom Thurmond ran for President, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

Lott’s comments would lead to his ceding the Majority Leader’s position.

The campaign of Steve Novick, one of Smith’s Democratic challengers, pounced on Smith’s comments.

"Smith's refusal to express regrets for his role in rehabilitating Trent Lott's image just in time for Lott to jump through the revolving door to become a lobbyist should surprise no one,” Novick spokesman Jake Weigler told PolitickerOR.com. “This is the same man who has refused to apologize for his four years of full-throated support for the Iraq war, his votes to confirm Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General or his role in the Klamath Basin fish die off that helped decimate our Southern fishing industries. It's clear that Smith think that being a U.S. Senator means you never have to say you’re sorry for anything."

Russ Kelley, a spokesman for Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley, tells PolitickerOR.com: “Will the real Gordon Smith please stand up? Once again, he has shown he can’t be trusted to tell Oregonians what he really believes. In 2002, he said Trent Lott’s comments were deeply offensive and that he did the right thing by stepping down. Oregonians want a Senator who will consistently represent their values, not one who panders shamelessly to different audiences.

Piped in Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Matt Miller: “Smith has a long history of pandering to different groups and saying different things to different audiences. But flip-flopping on segregation is new even for him.”

Smith was speaking yesterday at a commemoration for Lott, who is ending his Senate career to join the lobbying sector.