I have a slightly differing take on the Lott pick.
I think Lott was picked to send a message to the base that they will not be reading any more E-mails for a while.....Senators can do this...and I think they blame the base for a variety of problems that they had to get through, including the Lott demotion to begin with.
It was the Lott issue that began a long string of battles between our elected congress critters and the conservative side of the political base. This culminated in the Immigration bill defeat, and in between was Meirs, Schiavo and the Port controversy among other more minor issues.
I don't think they will be too receptive to any more criticism from the base, largely because the immigration security only issue was a political loser, negative perceptions were created by Schiavo, and the president was weakened by Meirs and the ports.
The Senators are beginning to blame someone, and it is not themselves. Lott was a emotional choice to put things right.
Must be a Karma thing.....
I hate to be the one to tell you this, but the base is not 80% of the electorate, and if the republicans have decided to ignore THAT base, then they had better plan on being less than 20% of the senate in '08.
If your anlaysis is correct, they are in for a smaller minority in '08.
Still, this isn't any basic move by the Senate to tell the Base to buzz off.
These seats are a matter of seniority as much as they are an election and Lott had already been at the top once, so it didn't take much for him to find his way back. Just 4 years of backstabbing and power plays.