In the Washington Post, The Party That Keeps on Giving:
“I see so many people here today whose life Strom Thurmond has touched — and some he even squeezed,” Thad Strom, a longtime aide to Thurmond and one of his distant relatives, said, setting the tone in his introduction. “There are several things Strom would never miss: a [South Carolina] Peach parade, a Senate vote, or the opening of a new Hooters franchise.”
Former Senate majority leader and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole offered to introduce Thurmond to 21-year-old Britney Spears. In his post-retirement career pitching products such as Viagra, Dole recently starred in a Pepsi commercial with the titillatingly dressed pop sensation in which he said, “Down, boy,” to a Spears-watching dog. Lott, after delivering his now-infamous proud-of-voting-for-Thurmond comments, seized on Dole’s remarks, saying, “. . . I like that Britney Spears idea. You know, you get rid of the dog, and instead of saying, ‘Down, boy,’ you can say, ‘Down, Strom.’ ”
If it’s true that Thurmond had a history of groping women in his Senate office, then the joke was definitely not funny. Would anyone have said it at a going-away party for Bill Clinton? And hard-on jokes about Britney Spears featuring super-geezers Dole and Thurmond? Weird.