However, Trent Lott is a southern conservative, and perhaps even privately wishes for the good old days of segregation, and when caught up in the celebration of an old pal and while speaking through champaign bubbles, lamented the passing of the Old South publicly, which under any circumstances is unquestionably racist, left or right, drunk or sober.
I am surprised at your bigotry of southerners! Indeed, it was in the 60s when the south was desegregated, but only 1978 when the Mormon church was. If anyone "longs" for the old times, by your definition, it would be Reid, not Lott.
I will not see the day when the stereotypes of the ancient south are long forgotten as the purveyors of them have all passed to dust (I was born in that time). But it does not take a historian to see that the worst race problems in the last 40 years have been outside the south (Boston, Detroit, LA). That is not to say the south is edenic, only that there is no longer a "bastion" of racism by region. Pockets still exist over this country (and with time will hopefully become fewer and fewer). But to automatically label one a racist simply because of their birthplace is pure bigotry.