BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: What should have happened last week has happened today — Trent Lott has stepped down as Majority Leader.

Bill Frist is the favorite to succeed him, which is a good deal for everyone involved except Frist — and the Democrats, who would have rather kept Lott around. Lame efforts to tar all Republicans as Klansmen-in-disguise will continue for a while, but will peter out over the holidays with no effect. And they should, because it wasn’t the Democrats who got Lott removed.

Unlike the Democrats with Clinton, the Republicans have purged themselves of someone who didn’t belong in the office he held. The failure to do so cost the Democrats greatly. I think that the Republicans, meanwhile, will reap benefits from their action.