Lott furor singes Bush
Posted on 12/20/2002 12:59:21 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Lott furor singes Bush
Distraction threatens White House agenda, relations with Senate
12/20/2002
WASHINGTON - As Trent Lott fights for his political life, President Bush and his aides are starting to get bruised.
A White House eager to press its agenda with a Republican-run Congress may have to scale back its ambitions, analysts said, lest they be tagged as "Lott Republicans" who care nothing about civil rights.
The fallout over Mr. Lott's perceived nostalgia for the segregated past also threatens the president's relationship with Senate Republicans, not to mention black voters Mr. Bush would like to attract through its agenda of "compassionate conservatism."
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"The longer this drags out, the worse it is for everybody - for Trent Lott, for the White House, for the Republican Party," said Jennifer Duffy, Senate editor for the Washington-based Cook Political Report .
Mr. Bush wants quick confirmation of a slew of conservative judges; his attorneys must decide what position, if any, to take on a landmark affirmative action case; and his political advisers are looking for ways to attract more black support - all issues complicated by the Lott imbroglio.
Some Republicans, meanwhile, have expressed resentment at the perception that the White House is trying to ease Mr. Lott out of his leadership job. Among them are Mr. Lott himself, who has accused the White House of trying to undermine his efforts to remain Senate GOP leader by leaking unfavorable reviews of his performance to the news media.
Bush aides denied efforts to oust the Mississippi Republican. They also said that, however the Lott furor is resolved, they will work with Republicans and Democrats to get things done for all Americans.
"The president believes that it is the job of all members of Congress to work to advance an agenda that serves the country," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.
That task seems more complicated now, administration officials admitted, and has been ever since Mr. Lott's Dec. 5 testimonial to Strom Thurmond, the 100-year-old retiring senator from South Carolina who ran for president in 1948 as the Dixiecrat candidate.
Noting that his home state of Mississippi supported Mr. Thurmond's pro-segregation campaign, Mr. Lott added: "And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either."
Fodder for Democrats
Mr. Lott has apologized repeatedly for that comment in the two weeks since. But whether Mr. Lott remains as Senate Republican leader or not, Democrats can be expected to echo his words for months, if not years.
"The problem is that removing Lott doesn't solve the underlying issue of the Republican Party's hostility towards the African-American community," said a Democratic "talking points" memo distributed to supporters who are giving media interviews.
That kind of pressure is sure to affect how the White House handles several racially charged issues, analysts said.
One example: Whether to support, oppose or stay neutral about an affirmative action program at the University of Michigan that is the subject of a Supreme Court case. Mr. Bush must also be more careful about judicial nominees, particularly Southern conservatives and especially if there is a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.
At the least, analysts said, Mr. Lott's comment and his subsequent fight to save his leadership is a major distraction for a White House and Republican-run Congress facing its first major political test since Mr. Bush helped lead the party to a sweep in last month's midterm elections.
"It certainly is taking attention away from other things they would like to talk about," said Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, a conservative magazine that has called for Mr. Lott's ouster.
Democrats have signaled that they will use Mr. Lott's troubles to push an agenda in stark contrast with the Bush administration. Those include hate crimes legislation, an increase in the minimum wage, and tax cuts targeted exclusively to the poor and middle class.
Some Bush supporters accuse Democrats of wanting Mr. Lott to stay in his current position so they can make a punching bag of him and the Republican Party.
Other Democrats, meanwhile, are putting the onus on the president, pressuring him to call for Mr. Lott's removal. During a recent speech in Chicago, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., recited Mr. Bush's 2000 campaign pledge to be a "uniter, not divider."
"Yet now he wants a divider, not a uniter, as the Senate Republican family's majority leader," Mr. Jackson said. "What kind of consistent values does that reflect?"
Mr. Bush has criticized Mr. Lott's Dixiecrat comment, but aides said he does not believe the senator should resign his leadership post. But the aides have pointedly refused to take a position on a Jan. 6 meeting of GOP senators called to discuss whether Mr. Lott should be deposed.
Some administration officials have made clear they would not mind seeing a change, questioning whether Mr. Lott's apologies have undercut his effectiveness.
These signals have rankled Senate Republicans such as Orrin Hatch of Utah, who have warned the White House to stay out of Senate business. Mr. Lott appeared to be playing to the Senate's sense of independence when he rapped the White House this week.
'Seeping out'
"There seems to be some things that are kind of seeping out that maybe have not been helpful," Mr. Lott said.
White House aides countered that they have not commented for the record precisely because of Senate prerogatives.
Aides said they are confident they can advance Mr. Bush's agenda, parts of which are specifically pitched to black voters. That includes Mr. Bush's effort to provide more government help to faith-based charities and his education program. Next month, Mr. Bush is scheduled to travel to Africa to discuss economic development, increased trade, and assistance in fighting the spread of AIDS.
Analysts said that although the Lott fiasco may cost Mr. Bush black votes in 2004, there aren't many for him to lose; just 8 percent of blacks who voted cast ballots for Bush-Cheney in 2000.
That impact may depend on whether Mr. Bush's critics can keep the Lott issue in the news.
"In the long run, do I think people will be talking about this a year from now? No," said Charles Cook, who publishes a Washington-based political newsletter. "These kinds of things look huge at the time and fade in importance."
In the short term, however, Mr. Bush and his fellow Republicans need to be careful, he said.
"The White House and the Republicans may have to trim proposals a bit more than they would like," Mr. Cook said.
E-mail djackson@dallasnews.com
I do wonder when all this brouhaha is going to backfire, though..this is making a mountain out of a molehill, and I'm sure I'm not the only one in the country thinking that.
Who knows, maybe he's in on it with them..didn't he used to be a Democrat???
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