I was watching the Fox News Channel the other night. After all, as Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War, "Know thy enemy and know thy self and you will win a hundred battles.”

They were debating this whole Trent Lott situation in a round-about let's-actually-criticize-Jesse-Jackson way. And they were talking about the double-standard that the Democrats hold to Republicans. Their examples?

Bill Clinton has been on record in the last year praising Jay William Fullbright, a known segregationist from Arkansas, former senator. Al Gore's father voted against the Civil Rights Act of '64. There's a senator, there's a Democrat, former Klansman, K.K.K. Byrd, in -- on the Democratic side.

So by the same token, who the Hell did Henry Hyde think he was for pushing impeachment on a Bill Clinton for getting a blow job? Bill Clinton lied about it, sure, but so did Henry Hyde.

It just goes to prove the current American notion that everyone is guilty until proven innocent, and in that event, they're still guilty. Criminals can't be reformed. Segregationalists can't see the error of their ways. All politicians are evil. (I mostly agree with that third one, but you get my point.)

Is Trent Lott a racist? Probably. So are most white people whether they like it or not. However, I do think the Trent Lott statement about Strom Thurmond was simply an over-aggrandizing way to lift the spirits of a 100-year-old man. I don't think Senator Lott meant to say that we'd be better off with segregation. I may be white, but I despise Republicans just as much as anybody can. Which is why I'm so surprised that I accept Senator Lott's apology.