"An unabashed racist will represent the Republican party in the November election for a congressional seat after a write-in candidate failed to derail his effort. With 86 percent of the primary vote counted Thursday, write-in candidate Dennis Bertrand had just 1,554 votes compared to 7,671, or 83 percent, for James L. Hart, a believer in the discredited, phony science of eugenics... In November, the GOP candidate will oppose Rep. John Tanner, a Democrat who has represented the northwest Tennessee district for 15 years. Hart, 60, vows if elected to work toward keeping 'less favored races' from reproducing or immigrating to the United States. In campaign literature, Hart contends that 'poverty genes' threaten to turn the United States into 'one big Detroit.'" We demand a complete denunciation of Bertrand by Bush, Gillespie, and the rest of the GOP!

Is it any wonder that Kerry has pulled ahead of Bush and a poll shows that all GOP senators up for reelection losing to Dems? Here's a sample of the turnoffs that pass as "commentary" among the Bush faithful: "'The French believe John Kerry has `a certain elegance,' " sneers a contributor to the FreeRepublic.com website. "Of course, the French also think Jerry Lewis is a comic genius [slamming a man known for his tireless charity work]." Tom DeLay is reported to have started a meeting by saying, "Good morning, or as John Kerry would say, 'Bonjour.' " And the RNC weighed in April 1 with a spoof TV spot that derides both Kerry and the French. "Did you know that April Fools' Day was started by the French back in the 16th century? I think today, their gas prices are about $4.57 a gallon," says the announcer, with an accordion playing in the background and an oil painting shown hanging on a wall to evoke the mood of Paris."

The Bush administration has failed to meet ONCE with black civil rights leaders. The GOP has pursued a policy that has economically set black workers back 25 years, with far more blacks losing jobs, especially the best jobs, than whites during the Bush "recovery." Now, as Bush nosedives in the polls and Kerry skyrockets, the RNC suddenly has a big interest in black issues. Yeah, right. The headlining story at the RNC page is all about honoring black history month. Hey, you hypocrites! Why don't you try honoring black America with REAL ACTION instead of insulting minorities with your meaningless, shabby window dressing?

"The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in response to an October 2003 Charlotte Observer newspaper article in which Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-NC) claimed the stress of living near CAIR in Washington, D.C., caused the breakup of his marriage. Ballenger said that proximity to CAIR 'bugged the hell' out of his wife. He said his wife also objected to women 'wearing hoods' [traditional Muslim scarves] going in and out of CAIR's Capitol Hill headquarters. CAIR is seeking $2 million in compensatory and punitive damages, together with costs and attorney's fees. " Can you believe these rightwingnuts? Limbaugh blames liberals for his drug addiction, Janklow blames his murderous driving habits on diabetes. Now Ballenger blames women in scarves for his divorce. Pathetic!!

DNC blog: "Republicans are insulting the intelligence of Hispanic voters by saying they deserve to be part of the GOP Hispanic Conference because they kissed Hispanic girls: [from the National Journal] 'GOP efforts to reach out to Hispanic voters took an odd turn when House Republicans this week introduced their new Congressional Hispanic Conference. Several of the conference's members aren't themselves Latino and struggled to make the Hispanic connection. Rep. Chris Cannon of Utah volunteered that, as a fifth-grader, he got his first kiss from a Hispanic girl who was two years older. Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona hopped on the Love Boat by describing how he fell in love with - and married - a Filipino lady who speaks Portuguese.' How about creating jobs for the parents of Hispanic boys and girls or providing them with affordable and quality health care? That is what our Democratic members that make up the Congressional Hispanic Caucus work on, day in and day out."

"They had all the ingredients to become Mississippi's first black politicians elected to a statewide office since Reconstruction: strong resumes, party backing and money to lure voters. But state Sen. Barbara Blackmon, a lieutenant governor candidate, and Gary Anderson, a candidate for state treasurer, both lost Tuesday, and some observers say their skin color factored into the outcome. Rickey Cole, chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, said the GOP's tactics in this election season harked back to "Nixon's Southern Republican strategy to make subtle winks and nods to white racism in the South." Both Blackmon and Anderson are Democrats. Blackmon got just 37% of the vote against Republican Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, who got 61%... [ Haley] Barbour often wore the state flag lapel pin. In stump speeches, Barbour and Tuck told cheering crowds that they supported the state flag, which voters chose to keep in 2001 over the protests of blacks and whites who found it offensive."

"Dear Mr. Inspector General: We are writing to ask that the U.S. Department of Justice's OIG investigate the Department's conduct in delaying the release of and making redactions to a report on diversity in the Department's attorney workforce... We were extremely alarmed to learn that the Department of Justice had not only delayed release of this important report by more than one year, but opted to redact more than half of its pages, including the summary section. It is our understanding that the Department elected to redact such critical findings as 'the department does face significant diversity issues' and 'minorities are significantly more likely than whites to cite stereotyping, harassment, and racial tensions as characteristics of the work climate.' In our view, it is outrageous that the very agency that is charged with rooting out discrimination would make it so difficult for the public to scrutinize its own civil rights record."

From TomPaine.com's blog: "Is the government trying to trap tens of thousands of Middle Eastern and Muslim men into deportation? Before you call us paranoid for wondering aloud about this, consider these facts: The deadline is approaching for immigrants from certain countries to 're-register' with the INS under a post-9/11 'special registration' program; If men and boys aged 16 and older from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria do not meet the deadline, they could face deportation; With such high stakes, you might think the government would advise immigrants of the program's complex requirements and deadlines. But it hasn't. Oh, and to further discredit the INS's program, the first group of countries targeted conveniently omitted Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the nationalities of most of the 19 hijackers, lest you forgot. We don't think anyone should have to register, of course, but getting an exemption from anti-immigrant laws is not a shabby payoff for being a client state of the US."

"The home page of the Internet site for the infamous Council of Conservative Citizens (http://www.cofcc.org) currently features a photograph of former Republican Party chairman and current Mississippi GOP gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour at a barbeque 'sponsored by the Council of Conservative Citizens to raise money for private academy school buses,' according to the site... Said National Jewish Democratic Council Executive Director Ira N. Forman: 'The views of the CCC are unknown only to those who have hidden under a rock or not read a national newspaper in the last ten years. They are not 'conservative;' in fact, they stand for the most insidious forms of racism, Holocaust denial, spiraling xenophobia, and white separatism and supremacy. Haley Barbour obviously should know better than to attend a CCC-sponsored function such as this, for his attendance can only be seen as an endorsement of their well-known repugnant views.'"

"U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger (R) blames the breakup of his 50-year marriage partly on the stress of living near a leading American Muslim advocacy group... Another stress on their marriage: the decision by 'we holier-than-thou Republicans' in the House, Ballenger said, to ban gifts -- including meals and theater tickets from lobbyists -- that once meant 'a social life for (congressional) wives.'... Ballenger said in the post 9-11 environment in Washington, his wife, a homemaker, was anxious about all the activity at CAIR, including people unloading boxes and women 'wearing hoods,' or headscarves going in and out of the office building on New Jersey Avenue. 'That's 2 1/2 blocks from the Capitol,' he added, 'and they could blow it up.' 'This is out-and-out bigotry,' [CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper] said. 'It's unworthy of an elected official at the national level. ... You wonder what he's been doing in Congress if this is the kind of analysis he does: 'You're a Muslim, so you're guilty.''"

Has-been rocker and right-winged extremist Ted Nugent has been given the boot by the "Summer Celebrations" music festival in Muskegon, Michigan as a result of his recent racial slurs on a Denver radio station. In an interview with Nugent on "Lewis & Floorwax" last week, Nugent bandied about "the N word" after using a host of slurs against Asians. In a written statement, Nugent has blamed the resulting back lash on reports by "liberal hippies in the media."

PentaPost opines, "Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY), has out-Lotted Mr. Lott. Mrs. Cubin's remarks came not in a birthday tribute to a centenarian but on the floor of the House of Representatives, in the midst of a serious debate on a gun measure... And unlike in the case of Mr. Lott, Mrs. Cubin's remarks seem to have provoked barely a word of protest from her Republican colleagues... To argue analogously that the amendment would have kept dealers from selling guns in the black community is true only if you subscribe to a worldview in which 'African American' equals 'presumptive drug user.' Yet more astonishing than Mrs. Cubin's obtuseness was that when the full House considered whether to have Mrs. Cubin's words 'taken down' as offensive... it voted in her favor, 227 to 195. Not a single Republican lawmaker voted against the remarks. Afterward, not a word of criticism from House Republican leaders. "

NY Times reports, "During his underdog campaign, [Sonny Purdue] energized rural white voters by promising a referendum on the state flag, which the Legislature stripped of its large Confederate battle cross two years ago. After he was elected, Mr. Perdue, the state's first Republican governor in 130 years, went silent on the issue. But last week, the day after he was inaugurated, he broached the referendum idea again. And now, Mr. Perdue said a flag vote 'is the only way Georgia can move on,' though he would not discuss specifics... Many analysts say that if the question is put to voters, the Confederate cross will probably return - and so will the boycotts, the tension and the backwater image Georgia has tried so hard to bury. 'If there had been a referendum in Georgia in 1860 on slavery, I'd still be picking cotton,' said State Senator Vincent D. Fort, a leader of the black caucus. 'The idea that a referendum will heal the divide is ludicrous.'" Hey Rebs - get OVER the Civil War!

Time reports, "Last Memorial Day, for the second year in a row, Bush's White House sent a floral wreath to the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. Six days later, as the United Daughters of the Confederacy celebrated Jefferson Davis' birthday there, Washington chapter president Vicki Heilig offered a 'word of gratitude to George W. Bush' for 'honoring' the Old South's dead. Bush has quietly reinstated a tradition dating back to Woodrow Wilson that his father had halted in 1990... One of the organizations connected to the ceremony is the Sons of Confederate Veterans, whose 'Chief Aide-de-Camp' is Richard T. Hines, a politically active lobbyist from South Carolina. In that state's brutal 2000 Republican primary, Hines reportedly helped finance tens of thousands of letters blasting Bush rival John McCain for failing to support the flying of the Confederate flag over the state capitol. Hines declined to comment."

"As we approach Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Republicans will talk like they have supported King's vision of a colorblind society and African-American rights all along, when their records and actions speak otherwise. That's just more of the Republican con job. Republican racism goes much deeper than Sen. Lott. There's Sen. Jefferson Sessions of Alabama, who once called a black assistant U.S. attorney 'boy' and a white civil rights attorney a 'disgrace to his race.' There's Sen. George Allen of Virginia, who displays a Confederate flag in his living room. There's Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who was a member of the all-white Belle Meade Country Club in Nashville, Tenn., before running for the Senate in 1994. There's Rep. Cass Ballenger of North Carolina who recently told a newspaper reporter he had 'segregationist' feelings and called former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, an African-American Democrat from Georgia, a 'bitch.'" The list goes on and on, writes Jackson Thoreau.

Derrick Z. Jackson writes, "When Pickering's nomination was defeated, Senator Orrin Hatch, the reigning Republican on the Judiciary Committee, screamed that 'extreme left Washington special interest groups' would do anything 'in order to do their lynching.' Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, called it a 'judicial lynching.' Combine that with Clarence Thomas hollering that he was a victim of a high-tech lynching on his way to the Supreme Court and a Martian might think that Republicans are in chains getting whipped by Al Sharpton... The Republican senators who cry that Pickering's leniency is being unfairly used against him were the same senators who let John Ashcroft hang Ronnie White's nomination for a federal judgeship from the Senate's rafters in 1999. Ashcroft, now our attorney general despite his honorary degree from racist and homophobic Bob Jones University and his hero worship of Confederate leaders, grossly distorted and misstated the record of White."

NY Times opines, "During last month's firestorm over Mr. Lott, Republicans tried to have it both ways on race. They appeased the majority of Americans, who were outraged at Mr. Lott's sympathetic words about segregation, by pressing him to resign as the Senate Republican leader. At the same time they winked at Mr. Lott's supporters by having prominent party members stand by him [and] making him chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee... Hope [for change] evaporated with the renomination of Judge Pickering and several other jurists with dubious records on racial issues. Senator Charles Schumer of New York, among others, has declared that he will use every weapon at his disposal to defeat Judge Pickering. Other Democrats should join in, as should moderate Republican senators, who insisted last month that Mr. Lott's views had no place in their party."

Writes Jake Tapper: "For months last year, the Pentagon had been considering killing the $11 billion Crusader artillery program, which Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld considered a Cold War relic not worthy of 21st-century warfare. [JC] Watts was one of its principal defenders: The weapon system was to be partially assembled in Elgin, Okla., and used for training at Fort Sill, both of which lie in Watts's district...Watts didn't seem to have much clout with the Bush administration, despite having been one of Bush's earliest supporters. He couldn't even get the administration to return his phone calls...Finally, at around noon, Wolfowitz phoned to give Watts the news everyone already knew. Watts was furious. He told Wolfowitz and eventually Rumsfeld that the way the administration had treated him was 'indecent and totally unprofessional.'"

California Republican Vice Chair Bill Back is in deep doodoo over his 1999 e-mail of an article that blamed Reconstruction - not slavery - for America's legacy of racism. Joe Conason asks why Bush won't repudiate Back and the article by William Lind. "It's likely that Rove and Bush don't want to annoy William Lind's patron, the powerful far-right figure Paul Weyrich, who often made life miserable for the White House during the first Bush regime. Lind operates the Center for Cultural Conservatism, a subsidiary of Weyrich's Free Congress Foundation, where he fantasizes about burning feminists at the stake and concocts theories about the Marxist Jews who have infected American culture... Last summer, Lind appeared at a Washington conference of Holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis." Where is the outrage???

John Cory writes, "Watching a Larry King show wherein Trent Lott's resignation was the topic of the day, the panel consisted of Senators John Warner, Mitch McConnell, Senators George Mitchell and Howard Baker, and there was a follow-on segment guest, Bob Jones, the president of Bob Jones University. Six white guys sitting around talking about whether racism was still an issue in America, but mostly talking about Trent Lott. Does that seem right to you? Me neither... The GOP and the corporate media want only to talk about the misunderstanding of Republican conservativism and the lack of compassion for foolish words uttered to Senate institution Strom Thurmond. Nowhere was there the question of why the GOP continues to function by hiding the agenda of neo-conservative southern leadership. Nowhere was the topic of Brown and Black America dealt with in any kind of depth. No, six white guys on TV decided not to look, in case there was something there."

NY Daily News reports, "A candidate for chairman of the California state Republican Party issued an apology yesterday after it was reported he once sent party members an article claiming the country might be better off if the South had won the Civil War. Bill Back, vice chairman of the California GOP, circulated the article in a party newsletter in 1999 that was E-mailed to about 500 people. The article, by conservative commentator William Lind, said, 'Given how bad things have gotten in the old U.S.A., it's not hard to believe that history might have taken a better turn. 'The real damage to race relations in the South came not from slavery, but from Reconstruction, which would not have occurred if the South had won,' added Lind... Back, who's locked in a two-man race for next month's election to lead the state party, told the Sacramento Bee and the Contra Costa Times that he couldn't remember why he included the piece." 'Cuz he's a Republican racist, that's why!

William B. Gould IV writes, "My great-grandfather, William B. Gould, an escaped slave fighting in the U. S. Navy, derided 'would-be King Jeff' and made the following entry in his diary on June 16, 1865: 'We heard that Davis has been carried to Washington to be tried by court-martial on the indictment of treason. We hope that the sour apple tree is all ready.' He was referring to the popular Civil War song 'Good Bye Jeff,' which noted that the conclusion of the war should find Davis 'hanging on a sour apple tree' because of his traitorous conduct. Davis was not tried for treason, and today his memory is glorified, not only by Lott, but also by other prominent politicians in the Republican Party, such as Attorney General John Ashcroft, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey -- all of whom have given lengthy interviews carried by the extremist Confederate Southern Partisan magazine."

Bob Herbert writes that Bill Frist will be replaced as NRSC chair by "Sen. George Allen of Virginia, a Neanderthal on matters of race who, like Trent Lott, all but worships at the altar of the Confederacy. A few years ago, when he was governor of Virginia, Mr. Allen issued a proclamation declaring April 'Confederate History and Heritage Month.' From Mr. Allen's pro-Confederate perspective, the Civil War was a struggle for 'independence and sovereign rights.' Independence, in this case, does not refer to the independence of black slaves. I'd like to know if Senator Allen feels we'd all have been better off if the South had won the Civil War... Mr. Allen loved the old Confederacy so much he displayed the Confederate flag in his living room. He was a little touchy about it, though. When someone accused him of flying the flag in his living room, he took umbrage. 'It was never flying,' he said. 'It was nailed to a wall.' Gee, I wonder why there are so few blacks in the Republican Party."

Frank Rich writes, "The Wall Street Journal's editorial page said: 'Republicans may once have used race to polarize the electorate, especially in the South. But that strategy long ago stopped being useful.' Tell that to George W. Bush, who beat John McCain in the 2000 SC primary after what Newsweek called 'a smear campaign' of leaflets, e-mails and telephone calls calling attention to the McCains' 'black child' (an adopted daughter from Bangladesh). Or to Sonny Perdue, the new Republican governor of Georgia, elected in part by demagoguing the sanctity of the Confederate flag. [Or] to Mr. Ashcroft and Mr. Bush, who appeared at Bob Jones University in 1999 and 2000. 'Of all universities in America,' asked the commentator Fareed Zakaria on ABC, 'why is it that Republicans have felt the need to make a pilgrimage to the one university that bans interracial dating?' Now that Mr. Lott is no longer the issue, will any of the conservatives who called for his decapitation answer that question?"

Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-NC) issued a statement saying his "choice of words... was a mistake and was wrong." He says he's "proud of his civil rights record," but his voting record is no different from Trent Lott, Jesse Helms or Tom DeLay - and he did not declare his support for affirmative action. And nowhere does he address the most offensive part of his remarks - calling Cynthia McKinney a BITCH. Ballenger offers no apology TO McKINNEY, and he just makes matters worse by calling her "divisive" (is there anyone more divisive than Jesse Helms or Tom DeLay?) and "someone [who] can push you so hard." Yup, so now he's calling McKinney a "divisive, pushy bitch"! We demand Ballenger's resignation!

"Trent Lott's decision to step down under pressure turns the national spotlight on the White House and other Senate leaders, said People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas. 'The Republican Party's civil rights problem is far broader and deeper than Trent Lott. It was important to the nation that Lott be replaced as Majority Leader. It is more important that the White House and GOP leaders make a break not only with the segregationist past but with their policies and actions that continue to undermine civil rights protections in America today. This includes especially the efforts by Bush to pack the federal judiciary with states' rights ideologues.' Earlier this week, People For the American Way released voting records on the top contenders for Lott's slot - including Sens. Bill Frist, Don Nickles, Rick Santorum, and Mitch McConnell. 'Sadly,' said Neas, 'all the contenders have similarly dismal records on issues relating to civil rights and equal opportunity.'"

CNN reports, "Former President Clinton said Wednesday it is 'pretty hypocritical' of Republicans to criticize...Trent Lott for stating publicly what he said the GOP does 'on the back roads every day.' 'How do they think they got a majority in the South anyway?' Clinton told CNN outside a business luncheon he was attending. 'I think what they are really upset about is that he made public their strategy.' He added: 'They try to suppress black voting, they ran on the Confederate flag in Georgia and South Carolina, and from top to bottom the Republicans supported it.' Clinton's comments were strongly refuted by a Republican spokesman, who called on the former president to 'check his facts.'" We did - and they are COMPLETELY accurate. It's time for the Republican Party to be held accountable for four decades of pandering to white racists, which began in 1968 with Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy."