Senator Lott’s two-sentence statement yesterday makes it clear that he still doesn’t understand what he did wrong last week when he spoke at a 100th birthday party for Senator Thurmond of South Carolina. At the party Thursday, Mr. Lott, the man from Mississippi who leads the Republicans in the Senate majority, said, “I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.” In 1948 when Mr. Thurmond ran for president, he was a strict racial segregationist. That is why, according to a Washington Post account of the event, when Mr. Lott made his comment about “all these problems,” a gasp went up through the room. We’re the last to suggest that speech about race ought to be subject to a code of political correctness, but Mr. Lott’s comment is indefensible. What was he thinking? The senator’s statement yesterday was, “This was a lighthearted celebration of the 100th birthday of legendary Sen. Strom Thurmond. My comments were not an endorsement of his positions of over 50 years ago, but of the man and his life.” That falls short of the apology that will be necessary if Mr. Lott is to continue to serve as the Republican leader. Whatever problems America has had over the past half-century, they pale next to the problems of segregation. It’s not a matter for lightheartedness.