[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.

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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]

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

[Consort]

Republican Senators from states with Democrat Governors must be very careful. Many Dems think that Wellstone's death was not an accident.

[KQQL]

By Friday, tensions between the White House and Lott had grown. Sources say Lott made clear that if he were forced to step down from the Senate leadership, he would also likely resign his Senate seat, a significant development because Mississippi's current governor, Ronnie Musgrove, is a Democrat. He would appoint a replacement for Lott, presumably a Democrat, leaving the Republicans with a precarious one-seat margin.

Hmmm.....Then Chafee jumps !!!......

=

26 posted on 12/14/2002 6:14 AM PST by KQQL
[

[Jorge]

Ping... for later reading

[Calamari]

Lott is elected to the senate by the voters of his state. If they don't want him as their senator then they can vote him out when his seat is up for election.

Lott's position as majority leader is an elected position voted on by the republican senators in the senate.

The democratic senators can't vote him out of his senate seat nor can they vote for or against him as majority leader of the senate.

If there is no challenge to him as majority leader from his fellow republican senators or if he wins the election for majority leader against a challenger then he is the majority leader. All the democrats can do is continue the caterwauling but this will get old soon. He has apologized several times now and that should be the end of that. To the left no apology will be acceptable so Lott and the republicans should move on. The upcoming war with Iraq and possible future operations against other terrorist nations will make this very old news.

The democrats don't have the votes to do anything to Lott. The republicans do. Do the republicans want to have their majority leader picked by the democrats? I don't think so.

The reality is that the republicans need 60 votes to get anything done in the senate due to the filibuster threat. If any bill does not have at least 60 senators in favor of a motion for cloture then the isue is not going to advance. The democrats can still be obstuctionists but that may not play well with the folks back home and could lead to further erosion of their minority at the next election. If Bush is still apopular president at the time of the 2004 election he will have coattails and democrat senators painted as obstuctionists up for election in 2004 risk being swept aside in all but the most liberal states.

[Kay Soze]

By Friday, tensions between the White House and Lott had grown. Sources say Lott made clear that if he were forced to step down from the Senate leadership, he would also likely resign his Senate seat..."

What shall Mr Lott's future demands of the GOP be?

Lott has committed more segregationist / racist acts then Clinton had committed acts of infidelity.

He obviously could care less about the GOP, Conservatisim or the US, save for his desire to lead it / them.

I am so old that I can remember a saying we once could use in the Republican Party:

“Character Matters.

I had to remove that bumper sticker from my SUV.

The good ole days.

[gore3000]

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

So am I. It is time for Lott to leave. He has always had a bad case of foot in mouth disease. He has been a terrible leader in the Senate. When he had the majority he failed to use it. In my view, it was his fault that Daeschle ever became majority leader. If he had had a spine he would have told jumping Jim Jeffords that he would filibuster any bill that he wanted passed if he changed parties. He has always acted in a spineless manner and in my view there is something for which he is being blackmailed and therefore cannot represent us.