Here's something to brighten up a blue Christmas for prison inmates all over America: Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, says he will work to pass a bill that will reduce prison rape.

"I knew about this as lieutenant governor, when I had the prisons under my office,'' he said. "One of the things I regret is that I didn't do more about it. It's a part of every prison in the country and that's a real tragedy.''

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he favors a bill that would start by collecting statistics. The non-profit Stop Prison Rape (www.spr.org) claims that 240,000 male inmates are raped each year, compared to 140,000 women raped outside of prisons. But most prisons don't keep reliable records.

"If we measure something, and cause people to look at it, they start paying attention,'' Mr. DeWine said. "We've got to beat the culture of prisons and the acceptance of it. We shouldn't allow this to happen to anyone.''

He's right. Even the worst rapists and murderers don't deserve such cruel and unusual punishment. Prisoners say the most common victims are young and vulnerable inmates. It's a disgrace.

Why Lott quit

While I had Mr. DeWine on the phone, I asked him about former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's remarks that America would have been better off by electing segregationist Strom Thurmond as president in 1948.

"I was there when he said it, sitting right in the front row,'' he said. "I just thought to myself, `Oh, my God.' I knew how bad it was when I heard the words.''

That contradicts Mr. Lott's lame claim that others who were there thought nothing of it. "I've known him for 20 years,'' Mr. DeWine said. "Our wives are best friends. I know he's not a racist or a bad person.

"He couldn't have meant it literally. It was just someone trying to humor a 100-year-old man.''

Many Republicans in the Senate were disgusted by the double standard of media and the Democrats. Mr. Lott was barbecued while Democrats who have done much worse got a pass.

But many Republicans were also disgusted by the way Mr. Lott sold out his party and his alleged principles, such as his claim on BET that he now supports affirmative action "absolutely, across the board.''

A flawed leader

"By embracing the entire liberal agenda on race . . . he implicitly endorses the smear that the only way not to be a `racist' is to embrace `affirmative action' and other such policies,'' the Wall Street Journal Online said.

Mr. Lott has taken a beating, but he has regained some respect by staying in the Senate, keeping Democrats from destroying his career and reducing the GOP majority.

As wrong as Mr. Lott was, the cynical effort by Democrats and liberals to exploit race demagoguery for political gain were just as repulsive.

Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee will be a better majority leader.

And now the Senate can get busy on things that matter, such as judicial appointments, tax cuts - and a bill to stop prison rape.

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