Tonight at the Reston, Virginia Barnes & Noble, I patiently waited to ask Trent Lott his first question on his new book. First I congratulated him on this being his first time, and my question (not verbatim) was "In your book, you cover how Frist and Bush didn't support you on your Strom Thurmond statement, but you gloss over your long record of voting against the 1964 Civil Voting Rights Act, against the MLK holiday, and your 1992 keynote speech to the overtly racist Council of Conservative Citizens (I think he nodded his head slightly at that point), which featured your articles repeatedly throughout the 90's. Being it was 2003, and an election was coming up, why don't you mention that they were distancing themselves from your voting record?"
He then immediately replied, "I wasn't a Senator in 1968..." I interrupted him, while pulling out a piece of paper from my pocket, and said "No, this is throughout the 90's, I can go over you r record if you'd like..." Trent Lott then said "Well the act shouldn't be in all states, (I think he said 11 states) but I've helped out a black politician in my home state since then..." And then rambled on about how he believed in equality for everyone, blah, blah blah, not going over the rest of my charges. Some form of media was there, I had my picture taken immediately after my question. Since it was the first question of his tour, I had to then sit and listen to a bunch of apologists say things like "I support your entire record and respect you highly, blah blah, are you going to run for president?" At the end, as I walked out someone asked "I take it your not a Trent Lott fan?" I replied, "I'm a fan of civil rights". Another person you smiled at me said "Someone has to say it. He's a reformed bigot". I said "yep, that is what democracy looks like."
I admit, it was a rush, I'm glad I'm not in jail right now.