Some Republicans working on Lott's behalf, meanwhile, are circulating records showing that Nickles's voting record on civil rights isn't much different from Lott's. Lott and Nickles voted against making Martin Luther King's birthday a federal holiday and against the Civil Rights Act of 1990. Both supported a tax exemption benefiting Bob Jones University, despite its policies discriminating against minorities and prohibiting interracial dating.
Lott's pals of course aren't concerned with Nickles' anti-gay bigotry.
Here's the transcript to Lott's hilarious BET interview.
GORDON: What about affirmative action?
LOTT: I'm for that. I think you should reach out to people...
GORDON: Across the board?
LOTT: Absolutely, across the board. That's why I'm so proud of my own alma mater now, University of Mississippi, that obviously had a difficult time in the 60s and 70s, now led by an outstanding chancellor, Robert Khayat, that has gotten rid of the Confederate flag, that has now has an institute of reconciliation, that has a leadership...
GORDON: Yet your votes in the past have not suggested that you are for affirmative action.
LOTT: I am for affirmative action. And I practice it. I have had African-Americans on my staff, and other minorities, but particularly African-Americans, since the mid-1970s.
Aside from looking like a buffoon, that's where Lott put the final nail in his coffin. He essentially conceded (rightly or wrongly) that opposition to affirmative action made you a racist, making it impossible for even his supporters to defend him..