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.
The election of George W. Bush,
You do know Bubba-2 is the baby Jesus,don't you?
Maybe it's the rise of strong Conservative role models like Rush helping to contrast right and left.
Plus, the left has just gotten way out of hand. They used to get inches, but they got greedy and tried to grab miles with the Boy Scouts, our religious symbols, the words we can and can't say, our guns, what we are allowed to eat and if we can smoke in our own businesses.
I am not surprised there's a great deal of turmoil, they have been pushing their luck for years. Getting shrill.
LOL! HELL YES.
Yes, I am used to any dissent being met by the shrieking of FR harpies.
However, to be honest I have been back and forth.. not reading the whole thread so if I mischaracterized you or your feelings in any way, it was just a knee jerk response on my part. Leftovers from past flameouts or something probably.
I apologize..
(I will book an appearance on BET if you wish.)
Who did Reagan appoint to the SCOTUS again?
I know. This is such a big issue because we finally have the control we have been lusting after for so long.
Finally, no more being locked out or being gyped out of the senate by one (1) turncoat.
Naturally people are on the edge of their seats. This whole thing is a cliff hanger and it's gonna be for a long time.
PS:
Clarence Thomas.
Sure it is. You're sounding the alarm about this supposed "real crisis" with terrible and frightening "consequences" simply because Lott resigned his ML position.
Most Republicans have come to the reasonable decision that Lott has become too weakened by this controversy to continue as an effective leader.
You're portrayal of them as "panic stricken" is more descriptive of the hysterical tone of your post than anything else.
The reality is that the inside the beltway Republicans have played right into their enemies hands, when indeed the tactics being used against them have been used repeatedly. It is that fact alone, which makes the Republican response so absolutely stupid.
No, Lott's comments that originally stirred up this controversy are what were absolutely stupid.
Republicans have long been aware of the DemonRat smear and fear-monger tactics, and are sophisticated enough to handle their nonsense.
Lott on the other hand showed his political clumsiness by making statements that played right into the the Democrat smear machine.
Bush and the Republicans were wise not to attempt to defend his stupid comments.
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.
How boring. We don't need to read an essay to know what the left smear and fearmongering tactics are about.
And the fact is, there's nothing "perfect" about their techniques at all...as evidenced by they majority of their smear campaigns against Bush that have totally flopped and/or backfired on them.
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.
Are you trying to make me laugh on purpose or what?
We've heard these ominous warnings before about so-called Reopublican disasters before...and the fact is they've ended up controlling the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Spare us your frantic hysteria about how Trent Lott stepping down as ML is painting a doomsday scenario for the entire Republican party.
Contrary to your panic stricken alarms about how this has supposedly divided our base and shown a tactical vulnerabiltity, and spells disaster for the GOP...I say it will prove the exact opposite.
It will diffuse the attempts by the Dems to make an issue out of Lott's statements.
They lose. We win.
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.
This is such a stretch. You obviously have far too much time on your hands to construct these unrealistic and unlikely scenarios.
What did he mean that things would have been "better"? There is a legitimate proposal to ponder when some Dixie old timers note that in "racist" 1950 Atlanta, a black father en route to enroll his son in a black-only college had to aim his car toward a restaurant or filling station that offered "Blacks Allowed" restrooms where his wife and kids could satisfy their travel break - while in "enlightened" 2000 Atlanta, the black mother and her kids can use any restroom and attend any college anywhere - only there's no father living in the family to drive them there, no college plans cuz the kids dropped out by 10th grade, and there's no money for a family car anyway.
If Lott felt the "problem" in America was the obliteration of strong Black American cultural roots in the institutions of family, church, education, community well-being and lawfulness, and personal industry since the "Civil Rights" movement and all its State largesse won the war in the 50s-60s - he should have said it straight out. And, let's be real, he wasn't speaking to Strom - who has morphed into a Sid and Marty Kroft puppet (God bless his soul) - he was speaking to the wistful nostalgia for a South that some of his Mississippi "greybeards" who were there would argue was safer, friendlier, more cooperative, prosperous and happier for Whites and Blacks and their friendships and shared community alike. Regardless of the level of morality or truth underlying that sentiment, he had to know that ANY articulated or intimated support for that bygone, divisive Jim Crow social order evokes a big, big blowup of "s**t". To give a "shout out" to America's long past, and wholly reviled, racial segregation system with a wink and a nod like Trent did is just plain idiocy - for any politician, much less the incoming Senate Majority Leader. A guy who is to lead a Senate majority newly won - a party automatically under unyielding seige of smears, deceits and despicable personal attacks gushing from the disempowered leftists of the Democrat Party and their ethically corrupt cohorts in the elite media ... needs to comport himself with the utmost of care and savvy. Stuuuuupid stuuuuupid man tried to blowed up the hard won GOP leverage in D.C. ... was fixin to blow'd it up real good!
Well, the Trent Lott joy ride on the "Peter Principle" express finally "petered" out. I've defended the guy on this forum, but his birthday toast and subsequent performance of obsequious (and insincere) apologies were nauseating and insightful to the quality of his character and judgement. And the size of his brainpan.
The Democrats and their media whores manically overplayed, as usual, the winning hand they were given. They're in worse shape now than before the mess. Frist is - to all evidence - virtually unassailable to left wing smears, and he IS conservative. This was painful, but it is a huge gain for the GOP going forward. Frist is the mentor, benefactor and natural leader of EVERY new GOP Senator elected six weeks ago. He, along with the President, made this Senate majority a reality by recruiting, funding and handling the incoming Freshmen. Lott, had he survived, would have been rolled by lefty race-baiters at every opportunity, to the ultimate demise of any welfare reform, conservative judicial nominations of Southern jurists, dismantiling of affirmative action schemes, Tort, SSA and Medicare restructuring, school choice, ANWAR redesignations and other Conservative legislation that might find it's way into the Chamber. Lott was kaput. Frist is new school, smart, talented and unencumbered by the usual political baggage. He'll be a tremendous face for the Party, and he'll cement the Senate team and force Democrat support of popular measures. He can tackle Medicare reform and testify to the pernicious effect of abusive tort litigation on the cost and availability of medical care. Hastert, Frist and Bush are an effective, systematic and effective troika each of whom have the deft touch necessary to move conservative policy into legislation and ultimately law. This issue was a Godsend.
Thanks for the laugh! LOL!!
Well, Trent happened. He said we support Affirmative Action now. Maybe Gary should take this issue up with Lott. They could have a debate on BET.
Look at what we put up with before: The 1999 lineup: Bush 41, Bob Dole and Bob Michel were less focused on the difficulty of moving "this weeks" meaty grist digest of Constitution-serving offerings through the hopelessly clogged and dysfunctional process than they were focused on their difficulty processing and moving last weeks' serving of a gristly meat offering through their hopelessly clogged and arcane digestive constitutions.
That's positive yardage. Don't worry, that "Patient's Bill of Rights", "Department of Faith Based Initiatives" and "Drug Grammy silly on Us" initiatives you've been ragging for these last few years are gonna get passed this year. Billy Carter, Ron Brown and the Rosenbergs are getting memorial plaques too.
Your post is eerily brief and nakedly linkless Uncle Bill. You could have linked "laugh" to some anti-Bush comedy site or something. It makes me scared.
What's really funny are all the chuckles you've given us with them old links predicting what Bush was going to do two years ago (are you moving the schedule up a few years, or are you thinking that maybe Bush will hatch some evil plot and turn time back so that he can fullfill your "predictions"?).
That's comedy at it's best.
I will say that you have a natural knack for propagandizing, few people have figured out that all you really have to do is post a text byte, and people will never bother reading the actual article you've linked them to.
I WILL however "support" a charity that funds a fleet of Swiss psychiatrists to attend to your disturbed condition around the clock 24/7.
The disaffection happened before the 2000 elections. Pat Buchanan and Alan Keyes offered more ideologically pure populist and conservative platforms. They fell woefully short.
Frist is a better steward and advocate of Conservative-tinted initiatives than would be Lott, even if he hadn't appeared in public with his head up his arse. He'll work with the Bush team, he'll skillfully articulate the agenda in media appearances, he'll move the business along, and he'll know that timing and momentum is everything in the Senate.
That's what the Senate leader does, he tries to find a consensus to move the people's legislation forward among 99 narcissistic and breathtakingly important prima donnas.
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Here's a perfect example of Uncle Bill's propaganda.
Bush wants stamps for illegal aliens
That's a link from one of Bill's spam posts.
Of course, his headline is a lie...but when did that ever stop him?
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