Turning a Corner?-Lott Supporters Now Say They Are 'Approaching' 26 GOP Votes for Lott

National Review Magazine ^ | December 19, 2002 | Byorn York

[ewing]

Sources on Capitol Hill say that Incoming Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi has collected assurances from more than 20 Republican Senators that they will support him in a new election to determine whether Lott will remain as Senate Majority Leader.

'We have got well over 20 and are approaching 26,' says one Lott supporter.

Twenty Six votes ( out of 51 total GOP members) are required for Lott to keep his job.

[TLBSHOW]

:>)

Truth will destroy the rats,

Republcans and Conservatives that don't take the stand are girly boys! And don't deserve to be in charge of anything.

[judgeandjury]

The Dems are going to play the race card BIG TIME in 2004 with Lott as their ACE!!!

And I'm confident that the Democrats who will be playing the race card the most fervently will be the members of the various segregated race-based groups within Congress, such as the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

[GOPyouth]

If Lott stays, we can all say bye, bye to the newly won GOP Congressional majority come 2004 and maybe the Presidency cause the GOP will be potrayed as a "racist" party with a "racist" leader

This is a double-edged sword b/c if he resigns, this is a clear sign to the dems and the press that all we have to do is yell "racism" and the result will be that person stepping down.

[SBprone]

"Who gives a sh*t about black voters? They will never vote for us anyway. All we need is 65% of the white vote and we win every time."

Where to begin?

If you mean we can't get their votes by kissing their fannies then I agree with you. If you mean we should ignore any problems faced mainly by blacks then I don't agree.

Doing the right thing by all Americans won't get us the black vote in the near future but it can bring about a Republican majority for the next half century.

Let me put this another way: I very much give a shit about the black voters who vote Republican. They're a small minority of black voters to be sure, but we need their votes. We won't lose their votes over this Lott nonsense. Many of them voted for Lott and would do so again.

[steveegg]

And I'm confident that the Democrats who will be playing the race card the most fervently will be the members of the various segregated race-based groups within Congress, such as the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Are we the only ones that find that ironic (not to mention moronic)?

[aristeides]

Politics is war by other means.

But pursuing politics through riot in the midst of a war may be a bit dangerous. Like, if it causes trials for sedition?

[gridlock]

I just don't see how our position is stronger by electing Lott than it would be if we elected somebody else as SML.

The die-hard victim-minded blacks will never vote Republican. But I think it is possible to appeal to the right minded minority ovter with an program of racial fairness and a colorblind society. But we cannot do that if Trent Lott is going to be going out stepping on his Johnson every other day talking about how much better life would have been under the Dixiecrats.

And now that Lott has gone out and endorsed affirmative action and race-based remedies, there is nothing useful about him at all. If we are just competing for who can pander better to the racial hucksters, the shameless Democrats will beat us at that game every day of the week.

If Lott had just apologized forthrightly in the first place and just shut up after that, he may have been salvageable. But now he is just a millstone around the neck of the Party and has to go.

[Smogger]

they won't portray us as a "racist" party, if Lott steps down from Majority Leader?

The Democrat's will always try with varying degrees of success to paint the Republican party of a party that panders to racists and xenophobes. How successful they are will of course depend on Republican politicians themselves.

If Republican party strategist, Bush, Rove, et al feel that Lott has single handedly set the party back years in terms of reaching out to minorities I say they have a right to feel that way.

[Robert_Paulson2]

NO and I don't buy your underlying premise about lott. Even Lanny Davis doesn't buy it. MOST DEMOCRATS SEE THIS FOR WHAT IT IS.. a put up job by hack operatives.

I don't buy it either, as I am at least as smart as lanny davis was on hannity yesterday. Neither will most of America. This is truly a NON ISSUE for all but the hard left red meat red diaper doper babies.

MOST americans see this as nothing but yet another democrat race baiting operation, being fomented by operatives of the extreme liberal democrats, the neo bolshevics... like hillary's thugs.

I don't care for Lott. But this ultimately will NOT affect us negatively. IT is only "red meat" for the "cornicopia of victims" party's extremist wing. They have GOT to energize their base.. and this is a VERY SMALL part of what they have attempted just to do that. I don't think it's working. But you do?

You better get used to this kind of stuff, because it is clearly the shape of things to come from the party of 'racists' and their pervading philosophy of 'victimology'.

I expect full blown race riots by this summer. All the socialist rainbow groups. I expect it. You should too. Making lott step down will not prevent it. But it may give credence to their accusations that 'republcans are racist'... and feed the fire.

We need to get over the "sensitivities of race" and the fear of them playing "the race card". They play it so much, NOBODY really beleives it anymore, except the gullible idiots on the extreme left... and paranoids in the center right...

This is their agenda. We need to start ignoring it and focusing on OURS instead. The continuing nationally syndicated program of "fear factor" courtesy the "cornicopia of victims" party, is NO WAY TO RUN our agenda as conservatives. Ignoring them will just make it more humorous to watch.

[Smogger]

Who gives a sh*t about black voters? They will never vote for us anyway. All we need is 65% of the white vote and we win every time.

What a ludicrous statement, with elections increasingly being decided by a few hundred votes.

[Smogger]

I expect full blown race riots by this summer.

Paranoid visions of full blown race riots? A la William Pierce? You sound positively giddy at the possibility. Hmmm..

[gridlock]

So voting down Lott as SML will sent the message that Republicans are racists, but supporting him in spite of his repugnant comments will not?

Ask somebody not on FR whether or not the Republicans are closet racists. A sizable number will tell say, "Of course they are!" It's not true, but many people believe that it is.

So the Republicans are suspect on matters of race. That's the reality. They will have to overcome that reputation if they are ever to make inroads in with minority voters. So the Pubbies have to decide whether or not that is worth the price.

The price is that when morons like Trent Lott pine for the good ol' days of Jim Crow, they get their ears pinned back.

Small price to pay, if you ask me.

[Robert_Paulson2]

I do not believe in riot, but the democrats do and this is what they will try and foment. riots in the streets, first by black muslims, then generally spreading to blacks and other minorities... and then they can keep the economy in our cities surpressed and point to failed social and economic policies... unless we start ignoring their crap.

firing lott is feeding their frenzy. supports their 'racist' smear of our party and will feed the rebellion, as muslims are being rounded up, from other countries. Democrats are the party of terror. so far all the islamikazis in america that have had a party preference have been, DEMOCRATS... and usually also a racial minority.

THIS is the islamic war here at home, by proxy. The race war, will become the islamic jihad of america...with farakan types rioting in the streets or practicing sedition.

When they are arrested, "racist" will be the accusation of the "victims" who just happened to be dispersing anthrax spores on the white side of town... I expect it. You should too. and PC american law enforcement who would not admit they KNEW the sniper was a black muslims... until after the white, christian, truck-driver captivated him FOR them, will be paralyzed by their fear of "racial profiling," just like they were then.

Bill Clinton sits back and laughs at his creation... makes a few phone calls and send out the "troops" to smear another conservative leader over some obscure, historical event, like they tried with Bush on the DUI... thirty or forty years ago... or Lott in College.

Anything to stir up the "army of racial victims" they intend to use. Firing lott won't forestall this crap. Only the fact that MOST americans don't buy into it. ESPECIALLY blacks who happen to love God, live conservatively, and support reason and morality in leadership.

This is an attempt to divide. It will fail.

[Robert_Paulson2]

giddy?

your accusation disgusts me...

[gridlock]

I do not support voting down Lott because I think this will guarantee racial peace.

I support voting down Lott because his comments on the Dixiecrats were repugnant, and must be answered.

And his subsequent pandering on BET just seals the deal.

Winking and nodding to racists on either side is completely unacceptable.

[beckett]

How is that for an answer. And this is why FR is under such attack by the fake freepers who are democrats. They know what is at stake.

What a pathetic joke. The forum ignoramus who shows with each and every post that bigotry and hate are the core values of his brand of "conservatism," actually has the gall to pretend that he decides who is a "fake" freeper and who is not.

[Robert_Paulson2]

"So the Republicans are suspect on matters of race. That's the reality."

Baloney. Only to the majority of the democrat hard left, who happen to also be black, and would say so even if we elected martin luther king as president for life...

neo-bolshivist lefties play the race card and the 30 percent of americans who buy their line of crap, go along EVERY TIME, because it's all they got left. The race card.

Sacrificing lott to placate them will not satiate them. It will feed their notion that they can cripple us by racially demonizing their targets. It is apparently working with you.

[MonroeDNA]

And now we all support affirmitive action, no matter what.

[grania]

I agree that Lott should not step down for what he said, but rather for the fact that since Bush and the RATS viciously denounced and renounced him, he has become the political albatross of the Senate Republicans and indeed the entire Republican Party

Isn't that kind of unfair? I really think that the administration should have come out swinging to defend Senator Lott. That's the way it's supposed to be when someone on your team, in your family, or in your party is unfairly targetted.

It really isn't good precedence to take things said to flatter a colleague at his 100th birthday party and use it out of context to destroy him.What's next? Comments at bachelor parties and weddings? Actions while involved in frats and sororities in college? How about old term papers? If this starts, nobody who has had a life will be left standing. Do you really want more Clarence Thomas-style attempted fiascoes?

I really don't like the opportunism by the administration here. If they wanted to get someone to challenge Senator Lott on his merits as SML, fine. Using this situation to get what they want for other reasons is unfortunate and shouldn't be rewarded.

[Robert_Paulson2]

The die-hard victim-minded blacks will never vote Republican.

exactly... so why feed their notion that they can destroy the rest of us by selective demonization of their political targets?

Even lanny davis said he doesn't think lott is a racist or meant anything racist by his comment.
Watch dems get really desparate as this "opportunity to demonize" republicans slips away...

If this loses traction with the american press and folks like us, what WILL they do?