White House agenda, relations with Senate
Excerpt:
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.
It looks like the Dallas Morning News is helping set up the Democrats agenda to wrongly smear the GOP as 'racists' between now and the 2004 elections?
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