shazzzaaaam!
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
How is praising his segregationist run for President as a Democrat - a platform AND a party Strom is supposed to have renounced - "being nice"?
Other than my gut...
Surely the President has seen all the news reports. He is briefed dailiy by Ari as to what the papers are saying. So, even if the papers are making this up, the President needs to come out and say HIMISELF that he doesn't believe Lott should resign. He should also publically admonish anyone who claims to speak for his administration- whether or not the leaks are actually occuring. Bush ultimately has the final say, and by him doing these two simple things, can end a lot of squabbling.
Honestly, is this what you want to hear about over the Christmas holiday? I certainly don't. And President Bush can stop it.
Anyone with any intellectual horsepower understands them quite clearly. That said, I'm not surprised you're having a difficult time accomplishing that task.
Lott tried to offer clarification, but he lied. So I still don't know what he meant.
George Bush has praised Lott in the past. Can we assume that George Bush is a racist?
C'mon, Hank, you can do better than that. The only possible analogy along those lines would be like George Bush specifically praising Trent Lott for trying to keep his frat house segregated - praise tied to a specific event, not an entire career - and, even then, a frat house as a private organization has the right to do so. In 1948, however, the issue was state-enforced segregation and denial of due process to blacks.
Oh, and BTW, I have never called Lott a bigot - I think he's an idiot who didn't think through what he said. But that doesn't change the fact that what he said was racially loaded. Motive versus meaning.
shazzzaaaam!
King Salim Khalfani of the NAACP-- Now he sounds like a reasonable "civil rights activist" who doesn't have an ounce of "whitey hatred" in his body, right? LOL
(Note: I'm guessing that the extremist leaders of the NAACP won't be appeased and silenced until they get to drag Trent Lott behind a pick-up truck......)
As to meaning, if he said it once, then it might be a slip of the tongue. If he was caught saying it twice, then it might be closer to his true feelings. But, if he's known to have said it dozens of times, then it is something else. Lott has been one of a few Senators who have been attending private tributes to Thurmond as he prepares for retirement. Thurmond has been getting senile and this is a running gag between the two of them that still gets through to him and makes him smile when he hears it. Lott's mistake was in making a private joke public when others don't have the "history" of inside knowledge to put it in the proper context. Those others, though, are the viewing public -- the critics know full well what Lott was doing and what he meant -- they are simply being political opportunists at Lott's expense.
-PJ
He wasn't praising his segregationist run for President; he was praising Strom. But, you're trying to get in his head, which is what thought police do.
That is exactly right, Appy. If Lott is asked to step down or removed it is the same as saying that he is a racist and if he is a racist then certainly everybody that has supporte him is too. The first thing that ought to be looked at is exactly who voted for him to be Majority Leader in the first place. Just a buncha closet Klansmen I'm sure.
Now, Lott has repudiated racism and segregation and apologized. The question now is : Are you willing to give up the Senate to the Democrats over a comment made at a birthday party when even YOU can't determine what he meant? If you are willing to roll over for the Democrats this time, how will we know you won't roll over the next time?
Step back and look at the situation. It's a molehill that the Democrats have spun into a mountain and you are going along with it. You have sided with Jesse Jackson and Tom Daschle on this one. I am willing to give Lott the benefit of the doubt.
Sorry, but I don't see any "complaint" by Lott. Looks to me like JESSE J. HOLLAND is just sticking to the Dems playbook!
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