Trent Lott starts with the threats now-- nice

[elf6c]

Having found out that the President will not support him (but will not work against him either), and the Republican leadership is moving to strip him of his leadership role, Trent Lott is spinning his butt off.

Nice try on BET, but it doesn’t sound like anyone is buying it.

So he next states he won’t quit under any circumstances and will quit the Senate if they strip him of this leadership role.

Republicans-- how do you feel about Trent’s threat against his own party? With the majority being so slim 51-49, if I am not mistaken, the possible loss of his seat must be the ultimate threat.

Who would take his seat? Would there be a special election?

Would this make him worse then Jeffords?

After he threatens his own party like this, would you want him back anyway?

Personally, I say call his bluff. What do you think?

[Munch]

Looks like Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove is a Democrat, and he’d be the one who would refill Lott’s seat. But having previously lived in MS, I found Musgrove to be a very honorable man - I wouldn’t be suprised to see him put a Republican in the seat. Stranger things have happened.

However, in situations like this, it’s common* to put the Lt. Governor in the seat - in this case it would be Amy Tuck.

Oh, and Trent Lott can suck it. His interview last night on BET was pathetic. I think his handlers had to unknot his legs from doing so much two-stepping.

[sub]*And by “common” I of course mean “I have no friggin’ clue”. I just seem to remember Bob Dole’s seat being replaced by the Lt. Gov. when he resigned to run for President.[/sub]

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Unintentional humor.

Lott also said he now thinks it was a mistake to have voted against creating a federal holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1983…

I’ll bet he does. That would have been the perfect foil to this flap, if he could point to having voted for that. Lawmakers love to be able to point to relatively insignificant votes like that when the shit hits the fan and say, piously, “Back in 1978 I voted for renaming the Downtown Office Building the John Muir Downtown Office Building, so that proves that I’m environmentally-friendly, so the fact that my tire-recyling operation has been cited by the EPA four times and by the city six times means nothing, hey, I love this planet…”

And I wish someone would explain to me how having black staffers “ever since the 1970s” somehow proves that he’s not a racist. They say that about Strom, too: “He recanted his position on race–look, you can tell! He’s got blacks on his staff.” How does that prove anything other than they both needed to hire someone and were both astute enough to realize that sooner or later a 100% vanilla team would attract undesireable attention?

[december]

*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose *
**And I wish someone would explain to me how having black staffers “ever since the 1970s” somehow proves that he’s not a racist. **

I may be wrong, but the weasily way Lott made this statement led me to suspect that he has no black staffers right now. Since his staffers probably come from D.C. and Mississippi, there ought to be plenty of potential black emmployees available.

[zut]

Linkety-link? Did he say this (the “quitting the Senate” part) on BET, or was this just today? I can’t find any mention of this on cnn.com or msnbc.com, and I’d like to see what, exactly, he said, and in what context.

[december]

Lott didn’t say it. Unidentified spokesmen have predictied it privately. That way it’s not a threat, it’s a warning.

[elf6c]

*Originally posted by zut *
**Linkety-link? Did he say this (the “quitting the Senate” part) on BET, or was this just today? I can’t find any mention of this on cnn.com or msnbc.com, and I’d like to see what, exactly, he said, and in what context. **

Just today I believe. I heard it on the morning news update on the radio on the way to work (Fox Sports Radio, if it matters)- I imagine they just get the news from Fox News Channel). If someone has run across it online could they pop the link up for us?

[Revtim]

If it’s true he’s threatening the GOP majority lead basically out of spite, then it’s clear he isn’t in the job for public service or even service to his party. If he really was a public servant, he’d stay on even if not as GOP leader.

[Arden_Ranger]

The closest thing I’ve found to unidentified insiders is this

White House officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Monday that Bush would not try to save Lott’s job.

From here

[elf6c]

More on the insiders angle:

The January 6 date left Republicans three weeks to consider their choices. Some Republican aides speculated about an effort to coax Lott from his leadership post in the interim, perhaps by offering the prospect of a committee chairmanship.

That would also address a separate concern of some Republicans, the fear that Lott might resign his seat if he lost his leadership post, and allow his state’s Democratic governor to name a replacement. A Democratic replacement would leave the Senate at a 50-50 tie, and complicate Republican efforts to advance their agenda.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/17/lott.gop.meeting.ap/index.html

[elf6c]

From that lefty mouthpiece Fox News

. . .

Privately, White House officials said the comments by Bush, Fleischer and Lott were orchestrated to distance Bush and his party from Lott’s remarks while giving the senator a chance to retain his leadership post.

Bush advisers said the president feared Lott’s remarks, if left without rebuke, would undermine the president’s efforts to expand his party’s support among minorities, particularly blacks. They also said they tried to turn Lott’s gaffe into an opportunity for Bush to soften the Republican image.

Lott’s Past

Compounding Lott’s problems are recent reports of activities in his past that appear to support such a policy prescription.

Lott told Time magazine more than five years ago that he supported segregation while a student at the University of Mississippi, when U.S. marshals brought the first black student to the school.

Lott reportedly led the effort in his all-white Sigma Nu fraternity to continue supporting segregation. That policy changed years later.

Critics have also listed such past actions as his 1983 vote against a federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr., his 1982 vote against the Voting Rights Act extension and his efforts to restore Confederate president Jefferson Davis’ citizenship.

In 1981, he quoted court rulings upholding affirmative action programs at colleges in order to defend a dating ban between black and white students at Bob Jones University.

At the time, Bob Jones, a Christian university that changed its policy following the uproar that accompanied 2000 presidential candidate George W. Bush’s visit there, was close to losing its tax-exempt status.

The case went to the Supreme Court. Lott wrote a friend-of-the-court filing that said, “Racial discrimination does not always violate public policy.”

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to strip the school of its tax exemption two years later.

Lott has also been tied to the Council of Conservative Citizens, successor of the 1960’s White Citizens Councils of the South.

In 1992, Lott spoke to a CofCC group in Mississippi and said, “The people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy. Let’s take it in the right direction, and our children will be the beneficiaries.”

He has since sought to distance himself from CofCC, which this week filed a friend-of-the-court brief defending cross burning as free speech. The Supreme Court heard the case on Wednesday.

As recently as Nov. 16, CofCC passed a resolution praising Lott for his support of putting U.S. troops on the border to “protect our country against the invasion of illegal aliens.”

Lott, who has a 30-year career in the House and the Senate, rose to the position of Senate Republican leader and majority leader in 1996 when Bob Dole quit the Senate to concentrate on his run for the White House. His Senate colleagues re-elected him without opposition last month.

Though Lott gave a tepid apology a few days after his birthday tribute to Thurmond, news reports later revealed that he made similar remarks in 1980 at a rally for then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan.

He then apologized more fully.

“When I think back about Strom Thurmond over the years, what I have seen was a man who was for a strong national defense, economic development and balanced budgets and opportunity, and that’s the kinds of things that I really had in mind,” he told radio and Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity on Wednesday.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,72999,00.html

[elf6c]

As Bush advisers said they would not step in to save Lott’s job – with some GOP officials suggesting the president is willing to accept the consequences if Lott loses the majority leader position, quits the Senate and allows Mississippi’s Democratic governor to replace him – calls were mounting by Senate Republicans to hold a caucus and discuss the leadership of the party.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,73191,00.html

[zut]

And from Fox News:

As Bush advisers said they would not step in to save Lott’s job – with some GOP officials suggesting the president is willing to accept the consequences if Lott loses the majority leader position, quits the Senate and allows Mississippi’s Democratic governor to replace him – calls were mounting by Senate Republicans to hold a caucus and discuss the leadership of the party.

This doesn’t sounds to me like a threat or warning on the part of Senator Lott. Sounds like a pre-emptive strike by Bush: “don’t bother threatening resignation, Trent, 'cause it ain’t gonna help.” Or, less charitably, a way to make the Bush administration look tougher on the issue than they really are, by appearing to be willing to risk a Lott resignation (from the Senate) that won’t happen anyway.

Unless I see something else that suggests Lott would even consider resigning his Senate seat, I’m unwilling to fault him for this one.

[elf6c]

Not good for old Tretty boy:

President Bush has decided not to intervene to save Sen. Trent Lott (Miss.) after concluding he has become an albatross to the party and no longer has any chance of surviving as Republican majority leader, administration sources said yesterday.

The White House had hedged about Lott for nearly a week. Yesterday, after Republicans scheduled a vote that could lead to Lott’s ouster, administration officials said Bush would not intervene. A Senate aide working to save Lott said Bush’s continued silence could amount to a death sentence.

“The president is allowing the process to work itself out in a way that will seem natural and doesn’t have a lot of fingerprints on it,” a senior Republican official said. “When the inevitable happens, the president can be in a position where he hasn’t coerced the process but also hasn’t stood by someone who will create problems.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64306-2002Dec16.html

Also:

Complicating matters, some allies of Lott say he is likely to resign from the Senate altogether if he is ousted as party leader. That would allow Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (D) to appoint a Democrat to replace him, leaving the Senate evenly split between Republican and GOP members or supporters.

Under that scenario, Democrats would undoubtedly pressure moderate Republicans such as Lincoln D. Chafee (R.I) to consider leaving the party to give Democrats control of the Senate.

Lott’s allies might be making this threat to scare wavering Republicans into backing his bid to retain his job. Some advisers close to Lott say they can’t imagine him helping Democrats regain Senate control as his last act in national politics. Others, however, say it’s hard to envision Lott ending his career as a conservative who had fallen from grace.

The fact that GOP members are contemplating such fine details illuminates the unique and unusual problem before them. While the House is notoriously raucous, the Senate is, by design, usually calm, dignified and deliberative.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64280-2002Dec16.html

[hajario]

Virtually all members of the U.S. Senate are power hungry, egotistical fucks. He may pout like a little child for a while but no way will he actually resign. No way. What an asshole.

Haj

[Michael_Ellis]

Fuck Trent Lott.

[elf6c]

Some Republican aides speculated about an effort to coax Lott from his leadership with the prospect of a committee chairmanship. They worry that a humiliated Lott could resign his Senate seat, allowing Mississippi’s Democratic governor to name a Democratic replacement and leaving the Senate at a 50-50 tie.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20021217_696.html

A tie would be great. Hopefully that would keep the chowerheads on both sides of the aisle in the Senate from doing any real damage to the country while they bicker incessantly among themselves.

[monstro]

That interview was so funny. It was pathetic the way he was groveling in front of Gordon. I especially liked when he tried to downplay the importance of his voting record.

Lott: I wish people would focus on my actions. If they did, they would see I’m not a racist.

Gordon: But, Senator, we HAVE focused on your actions, in the form of your voting record. And to say the least, it doesn’t show you’re NOT a racist.

Lott: My voting record isn’t important here. It’s the secret, behind-the-scenes stuff I do for the blacks that’s the most important.

Even if you don’t think Lott is a racist, you have to admit that was a pretty lame argument.

And I wish someone would explain to me how having black staffers “ever since the 1970s” somehow proves that he’s not a racist.

I liked that too. I mean, white racists have never been adverse to hiring blacks. Who else is going to mow their grass, fry their chicken, and nurse their babies?

[elf6c]

*Originally posted by Michael Ellis *
**Fuck Trent Lott. **

Indeed, that appears to be the GOP’s opinion at this point as well.

Embattled Sen. Trent Lott so far doesn’t have the 26 Senate Republican votes needed to retain his job as majority leader, sources told NBC’s Tim Russert. . . . Lott needs at least 26 of the 51 Senate Republican votes to retain his job as Senate majority leader. Citing sources, NBC’s Russert reported on the “Today” show Tuesday that, so far, Lott is far short of that number.

. . . Gordon posed a hypothetical question: If President Bush asked him to step aside for the good of the Republican Party, would Lott step down?
“I think it would be a mistake,” Lott said. “I think it’s more important to stay in the job I’ve been elected to.”

. . . Lott’s precarious position weakened further Monday when the man who some Republican strategists see as his replacement, Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist, issued a statement that refrained from any support for Lott.
“My Republican colleagues and I are actively engaged in deciding what is in the best interests of the Senate as an institution and the country,” said Frist, who chaired the GOP campaign effort over the past two years.
“I am confident a consensus will emerge, but no decisions have been made yet,” Frist said, “and I have endorsed no specific proposal at this time."

And finally:

One difficulty that stands in the way of ousting Lott from his majority leader post: Lott ranks only 14th among GOP senators, so by a strict seniority rule, he would not be entitled to a major committee chairmanship if he decided to step down as majority leader.

   And any GOP committee chairman would be reluctant to surrender his hard-won post in order to give it to the Mississippi senator.
   Lott backers have warned that if he is dumped as leader, he may resign from the Senate, leaving it up to Mississippi’s Democratic governor, Ronnie Musgrove, to name a successor until a new senator is elected next year. Musgrove would probably appoint a Democrat, taking away the Republican’s Senate majority.
   But White House officials have told Republicans that Bush is willing to accept the consequences if Lott quits and allows Musgrove to replace him, GOP officials said.

Hopefully that is enough cites. Source: http://www.msnbc.com/news/845511.asp?0sl=-21

[Munch]

So if Lott resigns, Musgrove assigns Lt. Gov. Tuck to the position, tying the Senate at 50-50, is some Rep. senator from New England obligated to switch to Independent again?