Of course they're not dumb. The heat on Lott is coming from President Bush and from conservative talking heads like Peggy Noonan, Jonah Goldberg, Andrew Sullivan, John Podhoretz, Thomas Sowell, David Horowitz, Michelle Malkin, John McWhorter, Charles Krauthammer, John Fund et al, not from the Democrats. Hillary knows Lott is God's gift to the Democrats. The NYT knows Lott is God's gift to the Democrats. Tom Daschle knows Lott is God's gift to the Democrats. They also know that Lott has a good shot at blackmailing his colleagues into letting him stay on. Why in heaven would they want to mess up a dream scenario like that?