Buzzflash looks at the Trent Lott’s ongoing troubles and sees Karl Rove manipulating the puppet strings:

Quite simply, the Bush right wing political pundits that Karl Rove has on his leash are suddenly glorifying America’s great tradition of civil rights and telling Trent Lott to walk the plank. You would expect these hack journalists to be choking on their words, since they have regularly spewed venom on civil rights, prominent black elected officials — and unrelentingly advocated for the racially code worded issue of “states rights.” But Rove is worried silly that if Bush is revealed for leading the anti-minority, anti-civil rights jihad that he is really undertaking, the suburban women and independents will jump to the Democratic candidate in 2004, giving the Democrats a shot at picking up one of the smaller marginal red states and winning the presidential election.

That’s why we are now seeing so much right wing red ink about the “horrible misdeeds” of Trent Lott. That is why the story is staying alive as a mainstream media issue. That is why the White House journalistic “amen choir” is all over Trent Lott like a wet blanket.

That is also why Bush participates in so many photo opportunities with young black school children. It is not to win over black votes; it is to convey the image of a man who cares about minorities to women, suburban males and independents.

More.

Of course, if the “dump Lott” blastfax went out, Limbaugh and Hannity clearly didn’t get their copies. The GOP seems to have a split personality on this issue, for reasons Paul Krugman detailed pretty well the other day.

The Republican Party’s longstanding “Southern strategy” — which rests on appealing to the minority of voters who do share Mr. Lott’s views — is no secret. But because the majority doesn’t share those views, the party must present two faces to the nation. And therein lies the clue to Mr. Lott’s role.

To win nationally, the leader of the party must pay tribute to the tolerance and open-mindedness of the nation at large. He must celebrate civil rights and sternly condemn the abuses of the past. And that’s just what George W. Bush did yesterday, in rebuking Mr. Lott.

Yet at the same time the party must convey to a select group of target voters the message — nudge nudge, wink wink — that it actually doesn’t mean any of that nonsense, that it’s really on their side. How can it do that? By having men who manifestly don’t share the open-mindedness of the nation at large in key, powerful positions. And that’s why Mr. Bush’s rebuke was not followed by a call for Mr. Lott to step down.

There’s also a rumor going around that Lott is blackmailing Bush — threatening to resign from the Senate entirely if he is called upon to step down as Majority Leader, which could place Republican control of the Senate in jeopardy.

Only one thing is really certain: there’s always more going on than we know.

Update on Sunday: the New York Times reports that many of Trent Lott’s fellow Republicans are headed out to the various talking heads shows to speak out in his defense. There’s no unified strategy here — just battling factions within the party struggling to gain control of the story.

Here’s a stocking stuffer for you. It is, yes, the Talking George Bush Doll.

Unfortunately for you holiday shoppers, it looks like the first run is sold out. But you’d better believe I ordered one of these puppies as soon as I heard about them.

I think it will look lovely on the shelf next to my John Ashcroft snow globe.

Afterthought: get one of these bombed out Barbie houses and you and your Talking George can stage the invasion of Iraq in your own living room!

As of this writing, all orders for signed prints have been filled. They’re in the mail, and with luck, they’ll get to you in time for Christmas.

And if I screwed up your order, sent the wrong cartoon or inscribed it wrong or something, please be patient with me. I did my best to get everything out as requested, but I’m a one-man band, and the response to this offer has been much greater than I anticipated.

Also, please note — if you order one of these things now, it’s almost certainly not going to make it out of here in time for the holidays.

So Trent Lott’s holding onto power, at least for now — but Henry Kissinger’s resigning from the 9-11 commission so he doesn’t have to reveal his client list.

Good riddance to the latter, even if it did mean I had stay up last night reworking next week’s cartoon. As to the former — online conservatives spoke with one voice yesterday, and that voice said, Lott is surely going to step down today.

How did they get it so wrong?

It’s almost as if Hannity and Limbaugh, the guys with literally tens of millions of listeners, have a better finger on the pulse of mainstream conservative thought than the bloggers with, well, literally tens of thousands of readers.

But it’s good that these guys are out there, loudly insisting that there is no place for racism in their Republican party. It’s a sort of Sims-world conservatism right now, but change happens slowly, and maybe if they keep pretending, someday it will really be true.

Just not quite yet.

I’m not going to make any predictions on how the Lott thing will turn out, myself. It sure seems like his days should be numbered, but you don’t get as far in politics as he has without being able to weather a storm or two. He’s probably thinking that if he can just make it through the holidays, the issue will eventually die down. And he may be right.