A Very Sorry Majority Leader

The Weekly Standard ^ | 12/14/2002 | Stephen F. Hayes

[NYS_Eric]

If the part in bold is true, then I'm disgusted. Talk about blackmail on Lott's part.

[TomGuy]

It could be significant, depending on the what's and when's.

The actually MS statute regarding this was posted earlier:

Mississippi Statutes on interim US Senators. It would be the driving force on the significance or insignificance of a Lott threat/bluff.

[2timothy3.16]

Want to see how Freepers feel about Lott? Click and vote.

[InspiredPath1]

I think blackmail may be one of Lott's specialties. It is my opinion that we are watching the self destruction of the Republican party. I am NOT a "Lott" republican, nor is Bush. But if Lott stays on as majority leader, EVERY republican will be tarred with the "racist, segregationist" brush in the next election. Winning against "moderate" democrats will become impossible in states like Pennsylvania. The next senate majority leader must be squeaky clean on this issue.

How can the republican party take truly principled positions on topics such as school choice, affirmative access (not action), conservative judges,etc., IF we are led by Lott. Every position we take will be viewed through the lens of "racism".

I can see it now - "Of course the republicans want to take funding from inner city schools and send it to white private schools, they're all a bunch of racists."

E-mail or call your senators!

[aruanan]

That commentators around the country have spent more than a week debating whether Trent Lott is racist or just inept is a measure of the damage his comments have done.

No, little Stevie Hayes, you nitwit! It's a measure of the damage done when political opportunists, angry over having had their clocks cleaned in the last election (especially compared to the 50 seat House gain some were talking about not too long ago), resort to propoganda to further their political ends by deliberately characterizing innocuous comments as racist. That so many here at FreeRepublic have spent more than a week mindlessly echoing the propoganda in one form or another is a measure of how eroded the ability to observe and think has become in the United States and why such propoganda has become so effective.

[LibKill]

Disgusting. Putting his foot in his mouth was bad enough, but holding the Republican Party hostage is a thousand times worse.

[laconic]

Lott has to go. Why on earth the Republican Party and conservative movement has to pay so much to keep this mediocrity in power is beyond me. This is the same individual who turned the Clinton impeachment trial into a farce and he CANNOT be seen as the voice of the Party or it will be a minority for generations. It goes well beyond a simple misstatement (which this was NOT, it was intended); its a question of repeated incompetence and now, saving his own hide at the expense of the Party's. If he were concerned about it and the issues it represents, he'd have resigned as Majority Leader this past week.

[Let's Roll]

He's bluffing. If he resigns his leadership position but stays in the Senate, he may someday achieve political redemption. If he resigns from everything, he returns home in political disgrace - bye, bye future high dollar lobbyist position - and remembered by the voters of his state and the rest of the country as the one who trashed the hard work, prayers etc. that brought about the Republican victories on November 5th.

[InspiredPath1]

I took a look at the poll. I have one word to describe it - Shortsighted.
I want a party that stays in the majority, a party that can win! We can't win the philosophical arguments with an albatross like Lott hanging around our necks.

P.S. Strom Thurmond was MY state senator.

[Solamente]

"I want us to find a way to reach out and to build on our mistakes that we have made in the past." Us to find a way? Our mistakes? We have made?

[2timothy3.16]

I took a look at the poll. I have one word to describe it - Shortsighted. I want a party that stays in the majority, a party that can win! We can't win the philosophical arguments with an albatross like Lott hanging around our necks.

So, what questions would you like to see asked?

[sinkspur]

If the part in bold is true, then I'm disgusted. Talk about blackmail on Lott's part.

Be disgusted all you want. If the entire Republican party labelled me "racist," and said "take your seat in the back, Trent, and shut up," I'd quit too. And so would you.

It's not blackmail. It's about self-respect.

Lott may decide to quit or hold another vote, but under no circumstances should he leave on Maxine Waters' or the WSJ's timetable.

[Helms]

He was "just winging it" again, reading from a prepared script just like he did in front of Thurmond. I found his apology hollow and more about how he has brought home the bacon and how he realised the American dream at the expense of minorities who were not afforded the same opportunioty.

"just winging it", pure BS.

[sinkspur]

If he resigns from everything, he returns home in political disgrace - bye, bye future high dollar lobbyist position - and remembered by the voters of his state and the rest of the country as the one who trashed the hard work, prayers etc. that brought about the Republican victories on November 5th.

You're nuts. If he quits, he returns to a hero's welcome in Mississippi, can make boatloads of money serving on the boards of five or six Mississippi companies he's helped over the years, and his voters will say "Ef you" to the Yankee establishment that forced him out.

You don't know the South, my friend.

[InspiredPath1]

The problem is not the question, but the answers. I contend that anyone who thinks that Lott should "Stay on as Majority leader and make life for the leftist impossible" is being shortsighted.

Lott, as majority leader, would not make life impossible for the leftist. He makes life impossible for the conservative movement (which is NOT a racist movement, but will be described as such).

[Sunsong]

"Asking for forgiveness is reasonable--everyone makes mistakes. But wanting to do so and remain leader is not. The controversy is no longer just about Trent Lott. It's about the Republican party. Despite what Democrats would like to suggest, this is not because most or even many Republicans are secretly nostalgic for segregation. They aren't. Rather, it's because Lott failed to deal swiftly and seriously with the substance of his original comment."

Lott needs to do what is best for the country and for the GOP, and that means he must not be Senate Majority Leader. He is a liablity. If he wants to punish and sabotage the party because he is held accountable for his own stupidity...then we are better off without him. The ends don't justify the means...

[GraniteStateConservative]

Trent "Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever" Lott. The sooner we rid ourselves of him, the better. The Democrats underestimated the fune-rally. Many in my party and here at FR are underestimating the impact this will have.

I bet SNL will have a Lott sketch tonight. It'll give us all just a sample of what is about to hit us. There are ad guys much more clever than the writers at SNL and the DNC will pay them good money to beat us like a rented mule over this. The thing is that they don't need to embellish anything. They just have to broadcast the facts and it's damaging by itself.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Could you guys parenthetically mention in the title that this corroborates the blackmail story?

[InspiredPath1]

From todays Wash Post ... "Bush, widely credited with helping Republicans win control of the Senate on Nov. 5, has enough clout on Capitol Hill to pull the plug on Lott if he decides the Mississippi Republican will hinder the GOP's outreach to the black community, Republicans say. So far, Bush, through his spokesman, has said Lott shouldn't resign."

I suspect Bush's aides are scouring the records of Frist, Santorum, Nichols, and McConnell right now, making sure that NO skeletons are in their closets ... then a quiet call from the prez to Lott.

If Lott refuses, then Bush has a "sister souljah" speech and requests his resignation as leader.

[Let's Roll]

Having lived in the south for 23 years before moving here a couple years ago, I think my opinion is as valid as yours. And what is this "you're nuts" take no prisoners attitude so early on a Saturday morning?