Senator Foot-In-Mouth Strikes Again

From ThinkProgress:

Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), who famously suggested the U.S. wouldn’t have “all these problems” had Strom Thurmond been elected President, said today that the religious differences among Iraqis makes the conflict very difficult for him to understand:

“It’s hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what’s wrong with these people,” he said. “Why do they kill people of other religions because of religion? Why do they hate the Israeli’s and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me.“

Of course, there's also this classic from 1998:

Trent Lott (R-) Senate Majority Leader: And you should not try to mistreat [gays] or treat them as outcasts. You should try to show them a way to deal with that problem, just like, you know, my father had a problem, as I said, with alcoholism. Other people have sex addiction. Other people, you know, kleptomaniac.

And then there was the time Lott was standing with other Senators at a still-smoldering Ground Zero, listening to Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer impress upon the group the absolutely vital need for emergency loans to repair and rebuild the thousands of homes that were damaged or destroyed on 9/11, when Lott (surveying the surrounding high rise buildings) exclaimed: "Homes? I don't see any homes!"

Sometimes it just boggles my mind the way Democrats give the Republicans a pass for this insular, provincial, racist bullshit. If a Democrat said all Iraqis look alike, just imagine the outrage that would come from the right. Rush would have an aneurism. (Hey! Maybe we could get some hapless Dem to do it--just for that reason? It'd be worth it.