Trent Lott is gut-shot. We know from the movies that this is the part where the wounded hero says, "Go on without me, I would only hold you back."

Not Sen. Lott. Friday, he begged his platoon to drag him along through the jungle, no matter how he holds them back.

It was immediately clear from his apology that his wound was "bad," as the medics say. His lame speech encouraged his enemies and discouraged his friends.

And now the politically correct, liberal finger-waggers are in their glory, shaking their heads, feigning pity to conceal their fist-pumping glee that Sen. Lott is going down for his disgusting remark that America would have been better off with segregationist President Strom Thurmond in 1948.

BORGMAN CARTOON

Sen. Byrd, D-KKK

Sen. Lott's quote was felony stupid. But where are the PC police when you need them? Where's the sanctimonious outrage over the Democrats crowded closet of bigots?

Sen. Robert Byrd was once a member of the KKK. Sen. Fritz Hollings has called black leaders "cannibals." Al Gore's father tried to sabotage the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - which had more votes from Republicans than Democrats.

But the snipers who are gunning for Sen. Lott are on target: He should step down as Senate Majority Leader.

His rambling speech Friday showed he lost reality's phone number long ago.

He boasted about all his liberal friends, as if that proves anything. He bragged that he actually worked on a bill once with Rep. Charlie Rangel (See, some of my best friends are black). He dropped a name from the Lawrence Welk Show. He was so desperate he even offered a character reference from Sen. Jim Jeffords, the party-jumping state weasel of Vermont who is trying to cozy up to Republicans after betraying control of the Senate to Democrats.

And if there was any doubt that Sen. Lott has been breathing the stale air of the Senate too long, he called Strom Thurmond a "legend."

Former Clinton pollster Dick Morris was closer to what most Americans think of the very senior senator from South Carolina: "Strom Thurmond is an abomination upon whom senility is an improvement," he said.

The bigot problem

Here's the ugly truth that Sen. Lott should have confronted: Yes, the Republican Party does have a problem with bigots. It's mostly a stereotype, carefully aggravated by Democrats who play the race card at every chance. But it has one shoe in an ugly truth: Bigots are drawn to conservatism like ants to a picnic.

Sen. Lott's blunder reinforced that destructive image. He said racism is immoral. He should have added that it is also immoral to exploit racial wounds for political gain.

Instead, he groveled. He smiled obsequiously and promised to prove he can learn to "heel" on command.

That's no hero. That's no leader. He is now crippled by "race" like a one-legged man in a soccer game - a liability to his team, too painful to watch.

The Republican platoon should leave him behind.

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.