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Nine months after being forced to step down as Senate majority leader, Trent Lott is back. And he's taking swings at George W. Bush, the President whose strong condemnation of Lott's racially insensitive remarks at the late Strom Thurmond's birthday party helped precipitate Lott's demotion.
Then:
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WASHINGTON — President Bush said Sen. Trent Lott's implied endorsement of half-century-old segregationist politics "is offensive and it is wrong," orchestrating a party-wide bid to defuse the controversy threatening Lott's leadership post and Bush's own political prospects.
"He has apologized, and rightly so," the president said Thursday, drawing a lengthy standing ovation from a multiracial crowd in Philadelphia.
That strong condemnation only took 8 days.