Last mention, I swear
So the full story, according to Trent, is that he was set up: "When you're from Mississippi and you're a conservative and you're a Christian, there are a lot of people that don't like that. I fell into their trap and so I have only myself to blame."
Pure self-delusional crap, a sort of revisionist defensiveness all too common in the South. Considering that the people who pushed Lott off the plank were in the final analysis from his own party, who either genuinely repudiated his nostalgia for segregation or saw an opportunity to cut some dead-weight-with-seniority, you have to wonder just how blind he is.
That last defense of the Good Ol' Boy -- "I'm being persecuted because I'm a Christian" -- is frequently, like patriotism, the last refuge of the scoundrel, to paraphrase Ben Franklin.
Update: Duh. Or, as the folks at National Review's The Corner speculate, Lott's statement could reveal something even more base:
Surely Lott's little tirade has nothing to do with the fact that some Jewish conservative pundits -- Goldberg, Kristol, Brooks, Krauthammer, et alia -- were among those most eloquently urging his departure from the Majority Leader's office. I honestly don't think he means that, but then again, I have no idea what the hell he means.