AS TRENT LOTT goes out the door as the Senate's Republican leader, he can take Tom Daschle with him.

Fresh from the feckless performance in the midterm elections that delivered control of the Senate to the Republicans, the Democrats did not have a clue what to do initially about Lott's praise of Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential campaign.

Daschle, the Democratic leader in the Senate, initially bought the story of Lott, who honored Thurmond's 100th birthday by saying if the nation had elected Thurmond, ''we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years.''

Lott said his remarks were part of a ''lighthearted celebration.'' Daschle chose to give him cover. ''Senator Lott, in my conversations with him this morning, explained that that wasn't how he meant them to be interpreted. I accept that. There are a lot of times when he and I go to the microphone, would like to say things we meant to say differently, and I'm sure this is one of those cases for him as well.''

A subtle but critical subcontext is that Daschle's comment was in response to a question at the very end of a long press conference. Earlier in the press conference, Daschle talked about Lott as if nothing had happened, even though it was four days after Lott's remark. Talking about changes in the makeup of Senate committees, Daschle said, ''We look forward to working with Senator Lott.'' Daschle had his chance to say something on his own, but chose to play go along to get along.

As Lott's self-inflicted wounds became more and more mortal, Daschle had to do some damage control of his own. After Representative Maxine Waters of California said Daschle ''moved too quickly'' to give Lott a pass, Daschle said, ''When Senator Lott called me yesterday morning, he indicated he did not mean for his statement to be interpreted to condone segregation, and I accept that. That does not mean, however, that I found the statement appropriate ... it was wrong to say it, and I strongly disagree with it.''

The next day Daschle issued yet another clarification, after another comment by Lott praising Thurmond in 1980 was exhumed. ''It is profoundly disturbing that Senator Lott's statement last week was not an isolated incident,'' Daschle said. ''Such statements were unacceptable in 1980, and they are no less so today.''

As Daschle wallowed in angst, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, a probable presidential contender in 2004, became the first senator to say Lott should resign as incoming majority leader. But it took Kerry nearly a week to come to his conclusion. He was beaten to the punch by several conservative commentators and strategists who feared that Lott would sabotage their agenda.

Kerry and many other Democrats were asleep at the wheel of history, participating in the revisionist hoopla of Thurmond's birthday. They filled the air with plenty of praise without any reference to the fact that Thurmond for decades espoused politics that often had deadly consequences for many African-Americans and some white civil rights workers in the Deep South.

Kerry said, ''The Senate will lose a man who has seen the arc of the 20th century with his very eyes, from fighting in some of the greatest battles in world history to bearing witness to the Great Depression and the Great Society.'' Notice that Kerry managed to omit the civil rights movement.

Similarly, Democratic Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware said, ''Strom's word is his bond.'' Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut said, ''I cannot even begin to imagine the US Senate without this remarkable individual in our presence.''

White Democrats have to begin to imagine a Senate where they will not be so friendly with people like Lott and the many Republicans who vote like Lott on civil rights issues. Lott's associations with racist groups should have earned him a permanent disdain from the Democrats. It did not. Those associations, plus his most recent Thurmond comment, should have resulted in an instant calling for his resignation by the Democrats. It did not.

As of now, the strategy of the Democrats is to assume that Lott's words will keep African-Americans and moderate white suburban women from considering the Republican Party and energize them for Democratic candidates in 2004. That a strategy that assumes the Democrats need do nothing. No one should be surprised if that strategy fails.

People might be leery of the Republicans, but they can also see right through the Democrats, whose incessant appeals to so-called centrism have left them without the stomach for fighting racism. Daschle claimed that Lott's words were unacceptable. By doing business with Lott all these years, the Democrats proved how acceptable Lott really was.

© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company

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