The Senate Apologizes, Mostly - New York Times

"Last week, the Senate issued a formal apology to lynching victims and their descendants, marking the first time Congress had apologized to African-Americans for any reason. The intent was to erase what lawmakers called a stain on the Senate's history: its repeated refusal, throughout the first half of the 20th century, to make lynching a federal crime.

This being Washington, however, not everyone was on board.
When the resolution passed Monday - by voice vote, so that lawmakers did not have to go on record - 20 senators had yet to become co-sponsors or sign their names to a placard expressing support. By week's end, with liberal bloggers selling T-shirts ('My senator went to Washington ... and all I got was a lousy lynching') listing the missing signatories, the number had dwindled to eight, all Republicans.

'Who are the dirty eight?' demanded Donna Brazile, the Democratic strategist, whose autobiography, 'Cooking With Grease,' recounts memories of growing up black in racially segregated Louisiana.

Their identities could be learned by looking at a list of Senate supporters maintained by Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, the measure's chief Democratic sponsor. Absent were Lamar Alexander of Tennessee; Thad Cochran of Mississippi; John Cornyn of Texas; Mike Enzi of Wyoming; Judd Gregg of New Hampshire; Trent Lott of Mississippi; John Sununu of New Hampshire; and Craig Thomas of Wyoming.

Each had his reasons. Some said they didn't find it necessary to 'co-sponsor every nice piece of legislation..."

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