Posted on 12/16/2002 3:00:07 PM PST by TLBSHOW
WASHINGTON - Sen. Don Nickles (news, bio, voting record), the first Senate Republican to suggest that Trent Lott should be replaced as their leader, has built a civil rights voting record that is nearly identical to that of the man he would depose.
The NAACP says that over the past decade, Nickles and Lott have voted the same on almost every issue deemed important by the civil rights community. And in almost every case, their votes were contrary to the wishes of that community.
On the other hand, both Nickles, of Oklahoma, and Lott, of Mississippi, win the highest ratings from conservative groups. In 2000, the American Conservative Union gave both 100 percent ratings on key votes.
Lott, Senate Republican leader since 1996, is to become Senate majority leader next month. But his position in the party is in jeopardy because of statements he made at Sen. Strom Thurmond (news, bio, voting record)'s 100th birthday party Dec. 5 indicating a nostalgia for the South's pro-segregation past.
Nickles, currently the second-ranked Senate Republican and a past rival for Lott's leadership position, on Sunday became the first GOP senator to call for new leadership elections.
"I am concerned that Trent has been weakened to the point that may jeopardize his ability to enact our agenda and speak to all Americans," Nickles said.
Since the controversy began, Lott's critics have tried to show that for the past two decades he has consistently voted against civil rights bills. His allies, in turn, have produced records showing that Nickles and Lott are ideological compatriots.
In 1983, for example, both Lott, then in the House, and Nickles opposed a new federal holiday commemorating the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Lott said the holiday would cost the government too much money and that there were other Americans "more deserving." Nickles unsuccessfully pushed alternatives to a paid holiday, including observing the holiday on a Sunday.
That same year both Lott and Nickles backed a Jesse Helms amendment that would have preserved the tax-exempt status of private schools, such as Bob Jones University, which then banned interracial dating. The measure was defeated.
In 1990, the two senators both voted to uphold the first President Bush (news - web sites)'s veto of legislation to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to ban workplace discrimination. The president contended it would lead to racial quotas.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (news - web sites), in its scorecards of the past six Congresses, found Nickles and Lott voted identically in four Congresses on the votes it tracked, and differed by one or two votes in the other two Congresses.
In the 107th Congress that just ended, the NAACP gave Lott a 14 percent rating for voting with NAACP recommendations on five of 37 civil rights-related bills, while Nickles got a 19 percent rating with seven votes.
Among the issues where the senators differed with the NAACP were funding for Head Start and other education programs, the confirmation of John Ashcroft (news - web sites) as attorney general and global AIDS (news - web sites) funding.
Both got 13 percent ratings in the 1999-2000 Congress, and in 1997-1998, Lott and the NAACP agreed on two out of 10 votes, Nickles on only one out of 10.
"We are concerned that Nickles has voted just as poorly or even more poorly than Trent Lott," said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington office.
The two have differed on several major civil rights measures. In 1982, then-Rep. Lott voted against extending the Voting Rights Act, while Nickles, then a first-term senator, voted for it.
In 1991, Nickles voted with the majority to defeat a measure to abolish affirmative action in federal hiring. Lott backed the measure.
And last year, Lott was the only dissenting vote in a 93-1 vote to approve Roger Gregory as the first black judge on the U.S. Appeals Court for the 4th Circuit, which covers several southern states. Lott said he objected to then-President Clinton (news - web sites) making a temporary appointment of Gregory while Congress was in recess.
Among other votes:
_In 1991, both voted with a 93-5 majority to strengthen federal civil rights law and extend damages for intentional employment discrimination.
_In 1993, both voted to extend the Confederate flag design patent for the Daughters of the Confederacy. The measure was defeated 75-25
_In 1994, both sided with a Helms amendment to strip federal funding from the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission. The amendment was defeated.
_In 1998, both voted to eliminate a disadvantaged business enterprise program established in the Reagan administration to ensure that a certain percentage of federal contracts went to businesses headed by minorities and women. The program was preserved on a 58-37 vote.
He would win handily, wouldn't he?
Yet, we've been being told all day that Lott would be "finished" if he quit the party.
A governor ain't "finished."
This is Rove and Bush deal. They have learned nothing from Jeffords. If bush wanted to hang on to the senate all he had to do was bring Trent to the white house for an on camera press conference. There is the crap about Lott not handling it well. Bush is the captain of the team.. He has over and over demanded Republicans play as a team. But bush hid and let the Democrats take the game.
I would be very surprised if Lott stays in the senate. I would be even more surprised if Snowe stays a republican. Perhaps Chaffee would leave too.
This is the single bigest political miscalculation by a president in my life time. Bush is making Carter look good.
If I were running the Democratic media in 2004, I would run negative ads against bush for not defending a Southern Boy for being southern about Strom Thurman. If Lott just chose to be as neutral as Bush is now, Bush would never get a second term. Loyalty is huge in the South. Rove and Bush do not have a clue. But if you give me the ad funds I could keep a million red necks home and not voting for Bush in 2004. That is enough to elect a Democrat President.
You don't suppose that has occured to Bubba do you? Bubba may not be much but he does understand the South.
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