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
I know -- every time I look at it I start cracking up again :-) It looks like something you'd buy at Disneyland's Frontiertown or something. That feather is a riot! The sad thing is, Chester thinks he looks cool.
Would you be terribly offended if I didn't put much stock in a web site named "smokinggun.com?
Forget Democratic Underground, too.
dumbocrats and progressives have been known to creatively edit or... (GASP!) make stuff up!
You still haven't answered my question, Hank. But that's pretty typical of those downplaying Lott's comments.
Here you go:
Uhh.... I believe Lott offered up "clarifications" of what he meant on several occasions. George Will unsnarled Lott's "clarifications" yesterday with this from his column, I'll c/p from that:
"Major apology No. 2 was issued on Sean Hannity's radio show, in an attempt to recover from major apology No. 1, in which Lott said he had used "a poor choice of words" about "discarded policies." On the Hannity show Lott said he meant that Thurmond was the proper presidential timber in 1948 because of Thurmond's stance on national defense.But by 1948 -- the Berlin airlift, the Truman Doctrine of aid to Greece and Turkey and other nations menaced by communism -- Truman's Cold War defense stance was robust. And the platform of the States' Rights Democratic Party, aka Dixiecrats, under whose banner Thurmond ran, did not mention defense -- other than the defense of the South against what Thurmond called the "social intermingling of the races."
http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/national/will/story/5622215p-6598349c.html
Show me where Lott said "segregation" and I'll support you. But you can't.
Atleast he has said he will not bolt the senate.
Sorry, but you're wrong. I don't have the quote handy, but I'd say you're the one trying to get in to Trent's head. The plain sense of his statement is that he thinks it would have been good if Strom had won the Presidency in 1948. If he just wanted to praise the man, he could have said that he wished Strom had run - and won - in, say, 1976 or 1996. Or just a generic "you'd have made a great President, Strom." Trent went out of his way to SPECIFICALLY bring up and then praise Strom's '48 candidacy.
For the past few days, Ari has stated over and over and over again that the President does not believe Lott should resign as Majority Leader. Now, since this whole Lott issue has been one argued on the basis of principle, what principle is the President following? Say one thing, do another?
I want my President to be honest. I want a straight forward answer. And that simply isn't happening with Ari saying one thing, and leaks saying another. That's why BUSH HIMSELF needs to belly up to the bar and state FROM HIS OWN MOUTH what he feels. Period.
Chester just signed his own death warrant as Majority Leader.
OK, how do YOU interpret these remarks.
To tell you the truth, I took "all these problems" to mean the problems with terrorism. I never saw any way to connect that to black people, and the belief that Lott was endorsing segregation still seems to me to be an unsupportable stretch. (But don't get me wrong: under any circumstances it was a moronic comment.)
Whether I'm right or not, Lott could probably have deflected this by unloading both indignant barrels in response, but instead he opted for the Jimmy Swaggart option, pleading guilty to the charge. At that point, his fate was sealed. There's no defending a man who won't defend himself.
Once again, you ASSUME that is what he meant. In reality, you don't know but you are willing to give up the Senate over it.
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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