I asked for his resignation several years ago in a letter that become slightly infamous in the multiracial movement and led to a nasty exchange of emails between me, Tom Metzger and his idiot son.
Lott maintained a six year long association with the Council of Conservative Citizens, which he lied about for weeks and then finally admitted in the face of mounting evidence and now, these ridiculous remarks. Lott needs to come clean and admit his racism. Then he needs to resign and go home. And be quickly forgotten.
The good ole boy, "I mispoke, ain't I a stupid redneck" schtick won't work anymore. Six years of association with the Council of Conservative Citizens kind of makes that a little hard to swallow. Radley Balko said it quite well September 1999 in The American Partisan regarding stupid remarks by Senator Robert Bennett:
Such "misstatements," as they're called, aren't innocent. This isn't Freudian psycho-babble. These aren't ethnic jokes among friends, or silly stereotypes spilled out in relaxed moments (ala Fuzzy Zoeller). These were statements knowingly made by elected officials while on the record. They are evidence of incipient bigotry.
When I've spoken out against bigotry on the Left, lefties called me a right winger. When I've spoken out against bigotry on the Right, righties called me a Marxist. You can't win with some people, but they haven't won either, unless they're able to silence you. This goes for the paleolibertarians who probably agree with Lott as well, I ain't shutting up boys. Lott needs to go. So does Diane Watson and Robert Byrd.
I'd call for Jesse Jackson's ouster as well, but he holds no elected office. You wouldn't know it though, from all the hate mail I got from conservatives after my Lott letter in January of 1999. These brain surgeons called me a hypocrite for not calling for Jesse Jackson to resign from public office. As I said before (and hopefully those folks will pay attention this time), Jesse doesn't hold any public offices, therefore I can't demand his resignation from said offices. Got it? Or did I use too many big words, again?
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Read Radley's take here, D.C. Thornton's take here, Jonah Goldberg's take here, Jim Henley's take here, Josh Marshall's take here, Andrew Sullivan's take here and Glenn Reynold's take here.