Posted on 12/20/2002 6:19:45 PM PST by TLBSHOW
Commentary: Lott Throws In The Towel Gary Bauer President, American Values
After days of endless apologizing, Trent Lott has thrown in the towel and resigned as Senate Majority Leader. Late last night he began making phone calls to GOP colleagues to let them know his decision.
Also over night the White House began a more concerted push to replace Lott with Senator Bill Frist, who will now emerge as the "frontrunner."
Frist is a savvy media personality, but he angered many conservatives by interfering in Republican primaries around the country, virtually always in favor of the moderate candidate over the conservative. And he was a staunch supporter of former Surgeon General Satcher, who was pro-abortion. I hope a more reliable conservative-- either Nickles or Santorum-- will throw their hat in the ring.
Now comes the hard part. This mess doesn't end with Lott's resignation. The GOP needs to find its backbone. One example: There are reports that the Administration is now afraid to go into court against the University of Michigan's offensive racial quota system that selects students from certain minority groups regardless of grades while rejecting white students with much higher grades.
For 30 years the Republicans have opposed these quasi-quota schemes. Are we now going to throw in the towel because of the smear campaign against Republicans of the last two weeks?
Some insiders are suggesting there will be reluctance at the White House to nominate conservative judges. Such reports better be inaccurate or the conservative base of the party will be gone.
Let me bring up again one easy way for the White House to signal that it knows how to play hardball and help Americans of all races. Many Washington D.C. schools are abysmal and the children, mostly black, trapped in them are ill served. The White House should send a school voucher program to Capitol Hill on the first day of the new Congress just for the District of Columbia. Ted Kennedy will scream. Hillary Clinton will pull her hair out. Daschle will reach for the Maalox. And they will line up and vote "no" against those black families and in favor of the teacher unions.
Last year Bush dropped his voucher plan because Kennedy refused to let it out of Committee, but there should be no cave in this time.
At first mention of Lott's remarks I listed the Dem's racist actions which far outstripped Lott's words.
Clinton and his idolization of Fulbright.
Gore, Sr. opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and making the maid sit in the car.
Gore, Jr. limiting the blacks on his Secret Service detail.
Byrd in the hood.
Hillary!'s "f--king Jew b-st-rd!"
Al Sharpton's "interlopers".
Jesse Jackson's "Hymietown".
And on, and on, and on.
I called Senator Domenici's office and gave my friend there the long version, loud ("strident").
Then it became apparent that nowhere in this great land was anything like that being said outside Rush Limbaugh, Ms. Thurnstrom, and Bill Bennett.
Lott apologized and apologized and apparently was headed toward a Maoist/Stalinesque self-abasement in the square.
Bennett's remark was that he was headed for reparations, echoing my silent dread.
At Impeachment time, Lott was protecting Clinton.
In setting up the Senate elected in 2000 Lott was "sharing power" with that chancrous maggot Daschle.
Now Lott had demonstrated the political savvy of a manic Jerry Lewis, berating "his kids" during a telethon.
How would he handle it? Would he actually follow through on his threat to leave the Senate--and thus his seat to a Dem appointed by the Mississippi governor?
He announces, "I shall not seek, and shall not accept the nomination to be your president", "you won't have Nixon to kick around anymore", "I want to spend more time with my family".
It had become Ground Hog Day, and he couldn't change the calendar.
Had every Republican touted the Dem's actions vs. Lott's words, things might have been different.
This then is the "new tone"?
So I called Senator Domenici's office and my friend there had met Bill Frist and "there isn't a nicer man in Washington" and the "new year looks very bright".
I have next to no idea about Bill Frist other than when the bullets flew in the Capitol, he went to work to triage.
Anyone in lock step to Maxine Waters is not going to be swayed by anything Lott would have done, ever.
They would be broke now, having lost it all in investments with Solomon Smith Barney Frank.
I don't see what Bush could do that would speak louder than having Colin Powell as Secretary of State and Condoleezza Rice as National Security Advisor.
As for Lott, he opened his mouth and marched the school band into it.
He would, as Bennett suggested, have been willing to debate reparations to save his position, and that was where his quarterback position was rescinded.
I prefer the Walter E. Williams position on reparations: there shall be none.
Your boy Trent called me one before she did. I don't give a damn what SHE says, never have, never will. I do, however, mind when the man you supported, who was the leader of my party, calls me one.
That wasn't the question I asked.
One more time:
Do most of the politically active people you PERSONALLY hang out with, aside from those on Free Republic, have the University of Michigan case as their main focus of attention right now?
And let me ask another one: do you support making English the official language of the United States of America? If so, do you plan to ever learn how to speak and read English?
You evidently retain NOTHING -- I told you TWICE the week that Lott was 7 years old in 1948; I hope he wasn't in kindergarten then.
Actually, if you have read my essay Trent Lott Affair--Anatomy & Context of a Smear, you would know that I discuss how the Left has been perfecting their techniques for this sort of thing for a hundred years.
In not understanding how to respond in a manner that did not tend to play into the demagogue's hands, the Republicans in Washington have painted themselves into a disasterous corner. On the one hand, they have divided their base. On the other, they have shown their foes a tactical vulnerability.
It should also be kept in mind, that Strom Thurmond, more than anyone else on Capital Hill, has been associated with trying to get more Conservatives on the Federal Bench. That was the price he demanded for delivering the Southern support, which brought the Republican party back from a minority status. Humiliating Lott--admittedly a weak adversary in this--over a whimsical tribute to Thurmond, will have many aspects in the future fights over judicial nominees.
Recognizing a problem, is the first step towards dealing with it. The Republicans in Washington imagined a problem, where there was not one, and that is why we are now in trouble. I am looking for a way to repair the damage.
William Flax
No.
I never expected either of them to spend one minute on that.
You and I and a thousand FReepers would have assembled an army of counsels, the FBI to the tune of two hundred agents, subpoenaed hundreds of witnesses and got ready to rumble.
My godfather was a congressman, and I learned at the age of five to wash your hands after shaking hands with a Democrat.
But I don't believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, or Payback From The Next Administration.
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