And when asked the million-dollar question -- was slavery wrong? -- Sullivan answers in the affirmative ... eventually. "I think probably so," he says, "slavery was evil." (Later, he speaks more definitively, saying, "Yes, slavery was evil.")

But that's not always been the message in the publication. In a 1995 Southern Partisan article, Samuel Francis, a former columnist for the Washington Times, scolded the Southern Baptist church for formally apologizing for the church's early support of slavery. Repentance, Francis wrote, was unnecessary, because "neither 'slavery' nor 'racism' as an institution is a sin."

He then cited Biblical passages that would seem to condone slavery, concluding that "there is no indication that slavery is contrary to Christian ethics or that any serious theologian before modern times ever thought it was."

The Washington Times also printed Francis' column in June 1995. But the paper later sacked Francis after the Washington Post quoted him encouraging his fellow whites to "reassert our identity and our solidarity" at a conference. "We must do so in explicitly racial terms through the articulation of a racial consciousness as whites," Francis had said. "The civilization that we as whites created in Europe and America could not have developed apart from the genetic endowments of the creating people."

Though sharing space in a magazine with writers like Francis could be considered a political risk, Republican leaders such as Lott, Helms and Armey have all been featured in the Southern Partisan. Frequently, these leaders use their Southern Partisan interviews to defend their opposition to civil rights legislation.

That's not much of a surprise to Mark Potok, a critic of the magazine and the editor of the Southern Poverty Law Centers "Intelligence Report," which documents right-wing hate groups. "I think that Southern politicians are frequently pandering to an audience with racist leanings," he said.

Furthermore, Missouri has a history of coziness with the Confederates. During the Civil War, the state was torn -- literally and figuratively -- between the sentiments of its large population of Southern settlers and its pro-Union settlers. Ed Sebesta, an independent watchdog of the "neo-Confederacy movement," notes, "During the Civil War, some Missouri white supremacists set up a government in exile in Texas."

Though he would surely characterize the exiles differently, Ashcroft does mention the Texas connection in his Southern Partisan interview. "I was down in Texas the other day, and someone asked, 'Where was Missouri during the Civil War?' I said, 'Frankly, it was in Texas.'"

Sebesta believes Ashcroft granted the Southern Partisan interview and made pro-Confederate statements at a time when he hoped to run for the presidency in 2000. (The interview was published in October 1998.)

Potok says that such a move was an unusual step for a veteran politician looking to raise his national profile. "Most of them would do this early in their careers, before they knew any better," he says. "This was just foolish." Given the heat of the confirmation process, Potok says he wouldn't be surprised if the Southern Partisan interview gives Ashcroft a major headache. "Look at what happened to John McCain," he says.

After the New Republic blew the whistle on Richard Quinn, McCain's embattled consultant, Quinn's Southern Partisan writings came under scrutiny, including an article he authored in 1983 criticizing the authorization of a holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. "King Day should have been rejected because its purpose is vitriolic and profane," Quinn wrote.

He continued: "Ignoring the real heroes in our nation's life, the blacks have chosen a man who represents not their emancipation, not their sacrifices and bravery in service to their country; rather, they have chosen a man whose role in history was to lead his people into a perpetual dependence on the welfare state, a terrible bondage of body and soul."

In a 1990 column, Quinn wrote that Klansman-turned-politico David Duke won a seat in the Louisiana Legislature because he spoke for ordinary Americans "fed up with drugs and street violence, with special interest politics and 'reverse discrimination,' with the bloating of the welfare state, the decay of the cities ... and the disintegration of the American family."

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