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!

[Diddle E. Squat]

I hesitated to use the name 'Jeffords' as being too much hyperbole, but the parallels remain. The GOP and the country need Lott to finish out the commitment to serve he made to the voters when he ran for re-election. Control of the Senate is crucial. To abandon ship in time of need is an act worthy of criticism, perhaps even scorn. So if a starting quarterback is benched by the coach, does he just quit the team? And if he does quit, do you think he won't(and shouldn't) be criticized? Can you imagine the criticism if the new starter is injured in the playoffs and the best team in the league loses because the benched QB quit?

I was going to use the name 'Bob Smith', but even he pulled back at the last minute just enough to allow Sununu to win. End results matter.

You think the level of vitriole aimed at Lott is bad now, just wait and see what happens if he quits the Senate and then another Senator bolts.

[G.Mason]

'.......Miss. Rep. Gov. appoints a different Repub Senator."

Mississippi laws state an election for Senator will be held within 90 days of resignation, I beleive.

[SoCar]

Lott's problem is that WITHOUT all the recent controversy, he is a WEAK and INEFFECTVE Majority Leader. If he had been strong in the past, Republicans would be lining up to support him.

I know this, and that is the problem here. If we want to get rid of Lott the Senators had their chance in November and they will have other chances in the future. It needs to be done under our terms and not those of our political enemies who will never be satisfied with any leader that we pick.

[kcvl]

The scumbags are the ones who are using HIM as a RACIST which he is NOT. That's scum!

[habs4ever]

Bang on.

[Mr Rogers]

Lott will never go back to Mississippi. He loves his home state the way Bob Dole loved Kansas. Folks who have lived in DC that long & who believe politics is life believe DC is the only place in the universe. Chester would as soon live in outer Mongolia as live more than 100 miles from the political capitol.

[hinckley buzzard]

"What do I owe the GOP? Absolutely nothing!"

Fine. What do you owe your country on election day?

[rightwing2]

What Republicans need are some of Hillary's files. The one on Trent "the ol' Miss cheerleader" Lott. The Repubs tell Trent that if he quits the Senate in a huff, due to Nickle's elevation, the files get released. That would kill any future lobbying bonanza Trent is contemplating.

Lott is not going to resign anytime soon. Even if he doesn't get his plum Commerce Committee Chairmanship that I think he deserves, he will time his resignation for two years from now to allow time for a special election to replace him. If he resigned, the history books would not treat him kindly and conservatives would never forgive him. I believe that the GOP Senate majority is safe for the next two years.

[TLBSHOW]

Civil Rights Leader Gives Lott's Critics the Byrd

California civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson isn't going along with the liberals' nasty little race-baiting game - where critics pile on GOP Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott for offering racially insensitive remarks about segregation while ignoring that fact that Democrats have a genuine "N"-word-using ex-Klansman, Robert Byrd, in their Senate leadership.

http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2002/12/14/130754

[sinkspur]

I just say let's use this opportunity to dump him as leader because of past sins and current stupidity.

And you are using a racially-connected incident to indulge your desires.

Lott leaves. No self-respecting human being is going to work with people who have labelled him a "racist" in the public mind.

[cyncooper]

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".

You continue to misinform the debate. Your premise is incorrect. Lott can self-destruct or redeem himself. It has always been within his power and he has mishandled the entire debacle.

[BuddhaBoy]

"Trent Lott has no history of being a racist.”

If that were true, then why did Lott admit to his actions at Sigma Nu? Jesse Lee Peterson is not the best spokesperson for our side. He means well, but I think he is a little obsessed at times.

[RobbyS]

But to resign now and imperil the GOP majority would be churlish and would only hurt Lott's own legacy. If Lott were to jeopardize the Republican majority in the Senate, there would be no place he could hide. Every door wou;d be shut to him, and he would have to live on his Senate pension because Bush, for one, has a large rolledex.

[Republic of Texas]

I agree that we shouldn't give in NOW, because that only shows more weakness to the enemy. However, Lott's past weakness is the reason for his wavering support from the right. At best, maybe we can have a new Majority Leader, (with Lott NOT resigning from the Senate), at worst, a NEW Trent Lott who has learned that there is NO benefit to appeasing the left. They will still try to kill you when the chance arises.

[Torie]

Assuming this election is not held until January, a lot can happen between now and then. As I said before, one variable is how well Lott handles himself with a hostile press. He needs to expose himself to them, so that hurdle can be surmounted or not, and that variable put behind. It will also give time to dig up presumably all the remaining dirt there is on Lott, to the extent there is any, and give time to see just how much staying power this story has, and how it is influencing public opinion. It would be foolish to make a final decision, until all of the cards are face up. There is no need to rush to judgment. That is my two cents on the matter anyway.

[Right_in_Virginia]

"I am extremely, EXTREMELY disappointed in President Bush, ..."

Me, too. This is the first time I find myself questioning whether or not he's speaking from his heart or Rove's script.

If the president believes Lott's not a racist, has rebuked his stupid remark...then he should accept his apology and support him.

That vast "middle-land" would follow the president's lead.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

You know it's almost getting to the point where I am starting to believe my own conspiracy theories. To wit, that the republicans conspired with democrats and intentionally threw contol of the Senate to the democrats during the Jeffords fiasco so they wouldn't have all three branches of government, and could continue to play the Orwellian two-party control blame games. Hmmm..

[Diddle E. Squat]

Any chance that a conservative/moderate rift between Nickles supporters and Frist supporters might lead to Kay Bailey Hutchison as a compromise candidate?

OK, the Texas tri-fecta might be too much, but I wanted to throw out a 'smoke-filled backroom' scenario (Judge Roy Bean style).

[TLBSHOW]

Kevin Martin, government and political affairs director of the African American Republican Leadership Council, said people were overreacting. "By no means was he endorsing segregation or anything like that," Martin said. "It was lighthearted. It was humorous." Martin said Lott wins 25 percent of the black vote in Mississippi, which he said couldn't happen if Lott were a racist.

[Mr Rogers]

Right - if we don't stop picking on poor, oppressed Chester, Mississippi will vote for John Kerry for President. Thats REAL believable!