WASHINGTON - Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, under mounting pressure from opponents to relinquish his leadership position, apologized again yesterday for recent comments praising the 1948 pro-segregation presidential candidacy of Sen. Strom Thurmond.
Lott told a conservative talk-show host that his words, which have been widely denounced as racially offensive, were "poorly chosen and insensitive."
With civil rights groups, prominent Democrats and black political leaders clamoring for Lott to forgo the post of Senate majority leader, which he is to assume next month, the Mississippi senator tried to defuse the uproar over remarks he made at Thurmond's 100th birthday party.
Republicans of all stripes rallied around their leader.
"His comment was an inadvertent slip, and his apology should end the discussion," said Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania moderate.
But many Democrats said Lott's apology - his third attempt to put the matter behind him - was insufficient, and they insisted he should be replaced.
"I simply do not believe the country can today afford to have someone who has made these statements again and again be the leader of the United States Senate," said Sen. John Kerry, a Democratic presidential hopeful from Massachusetts.
At last week's birthday celebration, Lott proudly recalled his home state's support for Thurmond's segregationist candidacy for president in 1948. "And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years," Lott said.
The furor over his comments ratcheted up a notch yesterday, amid news reports that Lott, who initially said his words had been misinterpreted, made an almost identical statement 22 years ago during an appearance with Thurmond at a Ronald Reagan campaign rally in Mississippi.
Lott sought to explain his comments in a brief interview with radio host Sean Hannity.
Thurmond "certainly has been a legend in the Senate, both in terms of his service and the length of his service," Lott said. "It was certainly not intended to endorse the segregationist policies that he might have been advocating, or was advocating, 54 years ago."
His praise of Thurmond's candidacy, Lott explained, referred instead to the South Carolinian's support for a strong national defense, economic development and law enforcement.
"The words were terrible, and I regret that," he said.
In an allusion to a famous statement of regret by the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Lott said twice that "this was a mistake of the head, not of the heart."
"I don't accept those policies of the past at all," he said.
Leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus, including incoming chairman Elijah E. Cummings, a Baltimore Democrat, conferred over what action the 39-member group might take in response to Lott's comments.
"I think it's going to be very difficult for him to lead," Cummings, who spoke to Lott twice by phone yesterday, told CNN. "I think that the Republicans would do well to choose someone else."