A note on Daschle’s defense of Lott. How many people out there have worked with a racist? For those claiming not to have–yeah, right.
When you work closely with someone as Daschle and Lott have over time one tends to give them the benefit of the doubt. That is important currency in a chummy body like the Senate where personal relationships grease the wheels of legislation. Perhaps Daschle is trying to prop up an ineffective leader as Virginia Postrel suggests here, or maybe, just maybe they are friends and Daschle doesn’t believe he is a racist. From all available evidence Daschle is probably wrong, but personal relationships often develop across partisan lines believe it or not. If Daschle thinks Lott has been straightforward with him, he probably views Lott as often wrong, but honorable and assumes he misspoke.
During the Clinton impeachment, both Lott and Daschle worked well together and seem to have developed a level of trust between themselves. Being skeptical of public pronouncements from political leaders is the best way to proceed in most cases. However, sometimes those pronouncements are simply human reactions to a friend.