First, I don't really like to argue (snicker) but, a couple of things were posted that are just not true. Republicans are not racist as a breed. There are some bad apples; however the democrats are not lilly white either.
Anyway, we democrats are NOT pro abortion. We are pro choice. The republicans like to call themselves pro life, well that's anti choice, right?
Another thing Uncle J. Lincoln did NOT free the slaves. The 13th amendment did that after his death. In a speech he said, "If I could save the union by freeing the slaves, I would do it. If I could save the union by not freeing the slaves, I would do it."
Now, the rest of the story, to quote a certain air head conservative,

After the battle of Antietam, Lincoln got the idea to give the southern slaves a reason to rebel, thereby opening up a second front for the rebels to deal with, so, he signed the Emancipation Proclaimation. That piece of paper freed the slaves that were not in the north, and, he had no control over them. It was a strategic move to win the war. His only goal was to save the union. All those Parson Weems stories about him were BS."Some day, I will strike this thing a blow from which it will never recover."etc. He didn't want slavery to be expanded into Kansas and Nebraska, but, other than that he didn't give a damn about the slaves.
By the way, his proclamation didn't work, in fact there were thousands of blacks in the Confederate army.

Finally, I hope Lott doesn't resign. It will give the democrats a way to wake the country up. Now, if they replace him with someone who has more than a teaspoon full of brains, say, John McCain, that would kill the flap right now.