"Nice hat, Chester."
Posted on 12/18/2002 9:58:16 AM PST by RCW2001
JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, December 18, 2002
©2002 Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/12/18/national1216EST0589.DTL
(12-18) 09:35 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --
Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, fighting to surmount a furor over his racially insensitive remarks, complained Wednesday about anonymous White House leaks calling for his demise.
"There seems to be some things that are seeping out that have not been helpful," Lott said after a speech to the Chamber of Commerce in Biloxi, Miss.
"I understand how that happens because you've got a lot of people who work there that have different points of view," he told reporters. "But I believe they do support what I am trying to do here and the president will continue to do so."
For his part, though, President Bush declined again Wednesday to address the controversy when asked why his spokesman has repeatedly said that Lott should keep his job. Trying to distance himself from the racially charged issue, Bush has dodged questions about Lott since he condemned the Mississippi senator last Thursday.
But his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said Lott's since recanted endorsement of South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential campaign was "damaging" Republicans.
"It doesn't help to have this swirling controversy that Sen. Lott, in spite of his enormous political skills, doesn't seem to be able to handle well," Gov. Bush told The Miami Herald. "Something's going to have to change. This can't be the topic of conversation over the next week."
Officials close to the White House are suggesting that Lott step down, and Senate Republicans indicated they need to resolve the situation before the beginning of next year's Congress.
But Lott thinks he will survive. "I'm telling you here this morning, I'm hanging in there," Lott told the Biloxi Chamber of Commerce. "I'm going to find a way for myself, my family, my friends, you the people of Mississippi and America to benefit from this experience."
Lott, who told ABC News he has talked to almost all of the Senate GOP caucus, said he believed a "majority" of Republicans in the Senate support him. He said he would continue working to keep his job in the days leading up to a Jan. 6 meeting where Republicans are to decide his future.
Meantime, the Virginia NAACP called on the state's U.S. senators to dump Lott as majority leader. "We demand that our senators vote against Trent Lott," said King Salim Khalfani, executive director of the chapter
GOP officials are concerned that removing Lott from his leadership position might prompt his resignation from the Senate, which would throw the Senate back into a 50-50 split if Mississippi's Democratic governor picks a member of his own party to serve on an interim basis.
But Lott insisted Wednesday that he would not give up his Senate seat. "I was elected by the people of Mississippi to a six-year term," he told reporters. "I've served two years of that contract. I have a contract and I'm going to fulfill it."
Yet, officials said there have been discussions among senators eager to have a successor to Lott emerge as the party's leader when the Senate convenes under Republican control next month.
"There is now a substantial question as to whether Senator Lott has the capacity to move" the GOP agenda in the new Congress, said Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., one of the new guard of Republicans whose election last month helped deliver a majority to the GOP.
There was a widespread consensus among the GOP operatives and strategists that Lott must go. The opinion was shared by senior White House aides, but officials there insisted that neither Bush, political guru Karl Rove or his deputies were even indirectly involved in a campaign against Lott.
Lott triggered the controversy Dec. 5 at a 100th birthday party for Thurmond. He said people in Mississippi were proud to have voted for Thurmond at the time, adding, "if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either."
He since has apologized repeatedly, including in a news conference at home in Mississippi where he asked for forgiveness and forbearance, and on Black Entertainment Television on Monday night where he announced his support for affirmative action despite having voted against such programs in the past.
Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, echoing many others, called for a final decision to be made before the new year. "This matter has gone beyond the statement of a single individual to one of national importance, and unfortunately divisiveness and turmoil. As such, this situation should be and very well may be resolved prior (to) Jan. 6," he said.
One lawmaker who has spoken with Lott in recent days said the Mississippian appears to have the support of most members of his leadership team and many senior members, some of whom are in line to become committee chairmen and may value maximum independence from the White House when it comes time to negotiate over legislation. "But he was also fully aware that this thing is very fluid and dynamic," said the lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
There was no shortage of speculation about replacement candidates.
Talk centered on Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., the outgoing No. 2 Republican and a longtime Lott rival, along with Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; and Rich Santorum, R-Pa.
©2002 Associated Press
Yeah, out of your mouth, bonehead.
"But I believe they do support what I am trying to do here and the president will continue to do so."
Oh yeah, he's got your back, Trent. LOL.
"Nice hat, Chester."
Poor choice of words again, Trent.
"I'm going to find a way for myself, my family, my friends, you the people of Mississippi and America to benefit from this experience."
That's what has us worried, Trent.
President Bush, I emplore you- please lay the smack down on your staff and tell them to zip it- or else! The leaks make you look like a liar.
OK, Hank, let's review.
Lott said that WHEN Strom ran for President (1948) his state voted for him.
He said that they were proud of voting for him (in the Presidential election of 1948).
And that had the rest of America followed their lead (in the Presidential election of 1948) we wouldn't have had "all these problems."
OK, how do YOU interpret these remarks. Please note in advance that, despite Lott's claims to the contrary, that there was NO mention of defense or fighting communism in the Dixiecrat Platform of 1948 - Thurmond was running almost completely on segregation.
Then he'll quit altogether, no matter what he says today.
Lott's done, but I'd have a "KMA" or two for Bush and Rove on the way down were I him, too.
Ha ha?
Like threatening to quit and give the 'Rats control of Senate?
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