Final Lynching Bill Thought
The more I think about it the more perplexed I am that Republican Senators would not want to be united in their strong support of this apology. For the last 2 months they've been hollering about Democratic obstruction in the Senate. It's even Bush's new attack theme. They made such a big deal about the evils of the filibuster and how it had been famously used to racist ends in the past.

Now here was a chance to offer a real production number about just that: see where filibusters get you? passing up important legislation! Democrats would rather fail the American people now and apologize for it later. We are sorry that the Democrats' obstruction of the past was so costly. We hope they've learned their lesson, but apparently not. Something like that. Instead, for many of them, their instinct to protect the votes of racists won out.