Don Nickles Calls for New Senate Leadership Election to Challenge Lott

Fox News | 12-15-02

[rightwing2]

Fox News just reported that ABC reported that Nickles has called for a new Senate leadership challenge to Trent Lott!

[SBprone]

"Would I expect him to remain in his position? Yes, if he is a man of courage who sincerely believes what he has been saying: that his comments were wrong and indefensible."

The problem with your strategy is that you expect somebody to do the the honorable thing (as you define honor) instead of the human thing. That is setting some really high expectations for a man who is not good enough to keep his job. It is a flawed approach and it will fail more often than it will succeed. Like betting against the house.

[TLBSHOW]

oh get real, you just slapped those that support the party in the face.

[BuddhaBoy]

Naw, be fair now.

"Boy" is part of my handle. It is nothing to get upset about.

[Right_in_Virginia]

The president won't support Lott--even though he's stated Lott is not a racist. Bush, after all, wouldn't want to upset his base.

I'm disappointed with Bush on this one.

[A2J]

It saddens me to see the current Senate Majority leader employ a "If I don't get my way, I'll take my ball home" attitude and foresake the Republicans in the Senate, in the House, in Mississsippi, and all across the nation. Thats pretty selfish of Trent Lott if you ask me.

Trent Lott owes nothing to anyone but to those who elected him.

From what I've read, the great people of Mississippi have overwhelmingly supported him in this latest situation and yet the Republicans say that he owes it to his party to say, regarless the fact that they've emasculated him publicly.

The GOP better wake up and stop picking on him or they may well find Mississippi and other Southern states voting for the next Democratic candidate for president.

[BuddhaBoy]

Who is your pick, Torie? Frist?

[Diddle E. Squat]

Well I hope you'll reconsider before then. Let's see how this all plays out(though I do hear your frustration).

[Walkin Man]

Well I hope President Bush and Republican leaders sit down with their masters in the news media and the democrat party so they can pick an acceptable candidate to replace Lott. How about Jumpin Jim? I bet Hillary, Bill and Dashole would sign off on him!

[habs4ever]

Yes, it is a huge gamble by him, where he is throwing away the Budget Committee to become a majority leader? Does he have what it takes to be such an effective leader? I doubt it.Not by doing it this way.

He could have showed his effectiveness and clout and ability to compromise by steering the Budget Committee, proving his worth to the WH and building coalitions, and giving Lott a chance to succceed or fail on his major tests such as passing a significant tax cut.This could have waited until June.He shows me that he lacks the patience to pick his spots.And people have the temerity to call Lott arrogant and ambitious?

[cyncooper]

The point being there is NO WAY Trent Lott could prove he wasn't a racist while everyone was telling him what HE THOUGHT!

What nonsense.

Lott could and should have immediately come forward and addressed the firestorm seriously.

By all accounts, his attitude was cavalier and arrogant, indicating zero respect for his colleagues and constituents.

I started out thinking too much was being made of this, but Lott's own handling of the situation is what has angered me.

[beckett]

Who doesn't have "racial skeletons," Boy, in your world of "integrity" where no one has ever sinned, no one has ever said anything they wish they hadn't, and all must tiptoe on egg shells because of the chips on the shoulders racial opportunists wear as badges of honor?

You're misinterpreting what is happening here, IMHO. Lott's failure of political leadership has damaged his party. Leadership is not about "fairness." It's about the proper use of power. By his own act Lott hurt his party's hard won ability to wield power and attract adherents. He's got to go. Nobody's trying to lock him up. We just don't want him to have a national voice in our party.

[A2J]

You never had the Republicans best interest at heart.

At any part in this fiasco, have you had Lott's best interest at heart?

I didn't think so.

[Mr Rogers]

Yes, it sucks having principles - but without them we become just another power-loving bunch of prostitutes like the dems!

[kcvl]

So, it's "right" to support the destruction of yet another Republican by RATS who have more skeletons in their closet than the entire Republican party? Too bad Trent Lott didn't wear a SHEET. He would have been hailed as the "conscience of the Senate".

[governsleastgovernsbest]

If Lott really wanted to resign because he sincerely feels he would be dishonoring the Senate and his state, then let him do so.

But I have not heard even his fiercest critics call on him to resign his seat - they understand that it is the perogative of the people of Mississippi to choose their representatives.

If on the other hand Lott's motivation in resigning is to spite the GOP, then he would demonstrate that all his apologies were empty - that he does not sincerely believe he said anything that warrants not mere criticism, but real consequences.

Let me put it this way: I believe that the leader's position is a responsibility, not a privilege or an honor. It should be held by the person who can be most effective in the role.

Do you believe Trent Lott will make the most effective GOP leader in the next Senate? And if he has been rendered less effective, isn't he most to blame for it? So why shouldn't the GOP choose someone who could do a better job?

[AmericaUnited]

From what I've read, the great people of Mississippi have overwhelmingly supported him in this latest ...

Yippee! That's why the folks in Mississippi should keep him as Senator. The rest of us in the GOP should vote for an effective leader of the body which represents all of us, and that is not Trent Lott!

[PGalt]

Appeasing and Apologizing. Two characteristics absent in ANY man of integrity.

[SBprone]

"When has that little cockroach EVER done anything good for the Republican Party?"

That's what Kristol reminds me of, a cockroach!

The little buggers are hard to kill. Supposedly they would be the only survivors of nuke holocaust.

Will this guy outlast us all?

[G Larry]

The ideal scenario:
Nickles to Sen. Maj. Leader.
Lott stays in the Senate for now.
Miss. elects a Repub Gov. next election cycle.
Lott quits.
Miss. Rep. Gov. appoints a different Repub Senator.

[sinkspur]

I will wait to see how this plays out, but if the worst happens I'm gone from the GOP.

Not me. The GOP is bigger than any one man or situation.

But I'll stick around here, especially to watch the squirming when Don Nickles tries to get his way in an evenly-divided Senate. He won't have any more luck than Trent Lott did; in fact, he'll have less.

And then, we can watch the perennial bitchers crank up the bellyaching once again, about how spineless the Republicans are, how gutless they are, what wimps they are.

When there's no Trent Lott to kick around any more, they'll turn their attention full bore on George W. Bush, and insist on bringing him down in 2004, because he's too moderate, or he's letting too many of those Messicans in.

They're on a quest for political Nirvana, don't you see, and they are convinced that the rest of America, once it sees just how right they are in all their political convictions, will fall in behind a conservative parade.

"Shooting the wounded" is something the Republicans do very well.