Posted on 05/09/2005 10:22:27 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Senator Trent Lott expects to be majority leader of the Senate in January 2007, if not sooner, according to a Rules Committee staffer. Lott, who chairs that committee, has been using his chairmanship as the launching pad for the political comeback, most recently in his back door attempt to broker a non-nuclear-option-proliferation agreement with Democrats.
"Different things motivate different people," says the Rules staffer. "In the case of Lott, it's anger over the way he was treated by both his fellow Republicans and the media after the Strom Thurmond dustup. He wants his old job back, and he wants to see the look on the faces of people like President Bush and Sen. George Allen when he gets it back."
Lott is known to harbor resentment toward both the President and Allen. The onetime leader believes the former pulled his support for him during the Thurmond kerfuffle; the latter worked behind the scenes against Lott to push the candidacy of Sen. Bill Frist for the leadership post.
Currently, Lott has been exchanging e-mails with Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson, a moderate to conservative from Nebraska, who is not seeking re-election in 2006. Nelson has been viewed by Republicans as critical to gaining simple majority votes on some Bush judicial and political nominees should Republicans successfully put in place a parliamentary procedure that prevents a Democratic filibuster on judicial nominees.
"Assuming we lose a couple of Republican votes after we make the switch, a guy like Nelson would be important to have on our side," says a Senate Republican staffer.
Words of Lott's attempting to negotiate around his leadership has been circulating on Capitol Hill for several weeks. When Republican colleagues approached Lott about the gossip, he downplayed it, saying that Nelson had approached him and that he had not initiated the discussions.
Lott staffers on Monday were encouraging leaks to Capitol papers that Lott was close to a deal with Nelson, and five other Republicans and five additional Democrats, that would involve the dozen pols signing a memorandum of understanding to resolve the judicial filibuster impasse.
"The deal is basically structured this way," says a Senate staffer familiar with the negotiations. "The Republicans are promising to block the nuclear option, and the Dems are promising to vote for four of the seven federal court nominees who are currently being held back. The other three would remain blocked."
The three held over from the 108th Congress who would remain filibustered are believed to be Bill Pryor, Priscilla Owen, and Janice Rogers Brown. (If so, what stigma would attach itself to Lott this time for his unwillingness to fight for Justice Brown, an African American?)
As well, Nelson and his fellow Democrats would promise to vote for cloture to end filibuster attempts on all other Bush judicial nominees, including Supreme Court picks.
Late Monday, Lott staffers were desperately trying to tamp down talk of their boss's dealmaking. In one conversation, a Lott staffer insisted that Lott did not have the five additional Republicans needed to swing a deal. Nelson, however, was telling others in the Senate that he did have at least five other Democrats to back his and Lott's proposal, though he confirmed that Lott did not have the five Republican votes. If the two men are able to broker a deal, it will deal a blow to Frist and other conservatives in the Senate who have been able to hold the so-called "nuclear option" over the head Democrats for weeks.
"What's troublesome to some of us is that Lott and his Republican cohorts would willingly take four judges and sell another three down the river," said a Senate GOP leadership staffer, who spoke earlier Monday before Lott and his staff began backpedaling. "We've been fighting to get all of them a vote and to get them on the bench. Then our own turn around and cut the legs out from underneath us."
According to Senate insiders, Lott has lately been walking around the Capitol like the cat who devoured the canary. Not only is he creating headaches for Republican leaders and the White House, he is doing it in a way that would place him firmly in the middle of the biggest legislative fight to come along in years.
"Lott doesn't care about the nominees that are being filibustered," says the leadership staffer. "He cares about being able to crow about getting the President and Senate leaders clearance for the Supreme Court nominees. All of a sudden he has brokered a deal that current leadership on either side was unable to broker. He'd be insufferable."
And he'd be in a great position to attempt to take back his leadership position if Bill Frist does retire after the 2006 election cycle. Lott has made it clear he wants to get back into leadership in the worst way, though undercutting conservatives to broker a deal with moderates may not be the best way to show he still has juice.
If Lott is in a position to be Republican leader again, the GOP probably won't have a majority.
Message to the GOP, if you want Lott back as leader buy into this sellout deal.
He couldn't do any worse than the arch-wuss, Frist.
Time to let the Senate and the GOP leadership know that we don't want Lott back. Or maybe it's time for us to organize to get Lott de-elected.
He wants his old job back, and he wants to see the look on the faces of people like President Bush and Sen. George Allen when he gets it back."
Lott did everything he could to be good friends with the Democrats and they stabbed him in the back. Now he blames President Bush and Senator Allen?
Yeah, I want this guy in charge of the Senate Republicans.
/Sarcasm
Really? Who exactly do you think got us into this mess?
Take a wild guess.
I wish you'd put that on a bumper sticker.
Whatever was said about Trent Lott back when he made a complete fool of himself wasn't bad enough, IMO.
The guy wasted years of GOP control approving huge Clinton budgets and let Clinton get away with murder on dozens of issues time after time...
Gimme a break.
He will NEVER get his job back
in fact he lucky to even still be in the Senate after what he did
Lott was a mistake the first time he was selected majority leader. Although the putative reason he stepped down was "much ado about nothing" I was still glad to see the spineless wimp go.
That he was replaced by someone not much better is no reason to be happy that the exact same mistake could be made twice.
I'm about |-| this far from leaving the Republican Party anyway. Bringing Lott back as Majority (or more likely, Minority) Leader would be a final insult to true conservatives.
bases and federal pork drying up on the gravy train to Mississippi.
I wonder if Rummy's comment was the semaphore to Lott that a deal can be made to pull the rug out from underneath the Democrats 'compromise' minority veto power over judicial nominations.
They underestimate the fallout from backing down on judges. I am waiting to donate any more money to the GOP until I see how they handle this.
Tell me you couldn't visualize someone like Senator Coburn hitting him.
I am in what a few people around here call the "middle."
And I am right with you; if they reelect him, that will be the end of my DECADES long association with the GOP. I've about had enough.
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