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.
This is why I think Lott is bluffing. The threat to hand his seat over to a democrat rings hollow, because the interim Musgrove would appoint has to stand for election in 90 days. Mississippi's special election laws won't carry the appointed Senator over to the 2004 election like the Widder Carnahan. A hypothetical interim would either have to stand for election before the end of March or if Lott waited to resign when the Senate reconvenes, the interim would have to stand in November. Either way, it would be dicey for someone like Chafee to flip knowing the interim could very well be voted out in short order reverting the Senate back to GOP control again. Remember even during the period of a Lott resignation and a hypothetical Musgrove interim democrat, the GOP still controls the chamber unless of course a GOP Senator flips. Presumably at that time there would be a less spineless Majority Leader.
If Lott is blackmailing the Republicans, he disgusts me even more. For whatever it's worth, I think his comments at Thurmond's birthday celebration are relatively insignificant. They just demonstrate a galactic ignorance and is just another in a series of gaffes how Lott acutally serves the democrats with his ineptitude. Anybody wonder why in addition to the GOP Senators, there isn't a raft of Dem Senators calling for his head. The only ones I have heard are the clowns from Massachusets and "Dung-Heap" Harkin. What about Boxer, Hillary and the rest of them? There's something there with Lott we don't know about.
I don't want to say Lott is stupid. He is the ultimate Washington insider and knows how to do the Potomac 2 step. That being said, he is not a leader that I and a lot of other conservatives trust or respect.