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.
Lott's dismal mea culpa tour revealed him unfit for duty. He was lying and meely-mouthed in a manner far too reminiscent of the last guy in the Oval Office and his reign of gutless malfeasance and deceit.
It was right to throw Lott overboard. The GOP has a higher standard of integrity to judge our political representatives. I wouldn't have it any other way. Buchanan railed against the "betrayal" and the "Bush stabbing of Lott in the chest" ... therefore I knew it was the right response and outcome.
The U.S. Constitution is still firmly intact, IMO. I've got freedom of speech. I can own a gun. I am not subject to searches, seizures, intrusions and abuses from State agents. I still get my day in court, and I get a jury and it's still THEIR burden of proof. The separation of powers is secure, the institutional hurdles (SEE SENATE) have worked marvelously to forestall severe popular whim and no President can ramrod ANY program or agenda through a committee driven House, a fillibuster ready Senate and an independent Judicial review. This isn't the Nebraska Cornhuskers lining up against the "powderpuff allstars" from "Miss Marie's Cosmetology Academy". The bad guys have some folks working for pay too. Incremental change is what the founders mandated, and our neighbors and reps have been incrementally ramping up the cost and scope of government. We need to ramp it back down, just as slowly but surely. The positioning of jurists who are Constitutionally loyal is job number one. The disempowering of agencies and unelected bureaucrats is job two. It has to be steady and defensable against left wing demagoguery. Or ... the citizens will jump right in and throw us out.
The GOP is not going to reverse 65 years of creeping Statism in 8, 16 or 32 years. That's not acceptable to the American people, who are pretty lethargic, but jump in wit' a vengence when they sense their government is tilting extremely one direction or the other.
I never like to get personal here, but let's get some dirty-deeds-done-dirt-cheap truth out about this longtime FR contributor:
Uncle Bill was a bachelor engineering tycoon living in a 3000 sqare foot Manhattan penthouse - yet this single man was employing a live-in British manservant, Mr. French, BEFORE the three orphans (23 year old highschool sophomore Cissy, sexually confused red-mopped urchin Jody and the gifted actress Mrs. Beasely and her talentless prop Buffy) showed up at the front door.
Single 50ish man, British butler, cook and housekeeper, smallish apartment. That's odd some might say. Me.
Uncle Bill lost HIS wife to an untimely death, his sister and brother-in-law were killed in a tragic manner, Buffy jumped out a highrise window to her death while on bad acid, French keeled over with a cardiac three months after final shooting ... Sissy was doing a two girl show with Dana Plato.
Death and destruction. Uncle Bill, you should have lived in a Little Rock highrise, because you are looking to be a one man Arkancide. Anybody seen Johnny Whitaker lately? Tarzan's "little buddy"?
Michael Rivero knew. He knew too much.
Bush has not been subjected to the Lott treatment. There are various types of smears, and those directed at Bush are the usual clumsy efforts. Since Bush has repeatedly given lip service to the sort of campus values that the Left was counting on in the Lott gambit, there would have been no point.
But the Lott gambit was a probe. If they hadn't found something useful from Lott, they would have picked someone else. The possibilities are limitless, because they are now capitalizing on the conditioned guilt reflexes that have been instilled in many educated Americans, and know that certain probes will always evoke a conditioned response. No person, cooly reflective, would see any issue at all in a flight of fancy, about an event 54+ years ago, at a birthday party, honoring a Centenarian. No this was a probe, to see how the Republicans would respond to an off the wall attack, and they hit a raw nerve, when all of the inside the beltway types went defensive.
As for your other comments? Well, my friend, time will tell. Let us revisit this subject, a year from now. For anyone else, who wants a hardly panicy analysis of the considerations involved, in this ongoing and still developing event: The Trent Lott Affair--Anatomy & Context Of A Smear.
William Flax
If the definition of Conservative Base means kissing Daschel's and the rest of the pushing and shoving Dems' butts then we will be well rid of Lott's politics of kowtowing to the to the minority party of the America last crowd.
"I understand the urgency Mr. Shamir, and it only grows by the hour, but President Dole is still indisposed in private consultations. Wait, I just heard the flush ... yes, I'll have him on the line shortly."
Bill Clinton, I'll guarantee you ... was prowling the White House confines EVERY night at 3 a.m. Jesse Ventura revealed that Clinton woke him up at 2:30 am and sent a car over to Ventura's hotel to bring him to the WH so they could smoke some Cuban stogies and the most powerful man in the world wouldn't feel sad, friendless and alone.
Can you imagine the Hollywood pricks, pseudo-pals and freaked out women who received plaintive phone calls from the bubba POTUS at 4 a.m.? "Hi, Demi. Oh, Bruce is up too? OK, just wanted to say hi. Love your work, Bruce's too." "Hey, Tiger, it's Bill Clinton. It's one of the perks, I can get anyones number. OK, well, play that Masters like I always told you that you could tomorrow morning. Oh, it's Sunday at 4 am... well, be a champion today then! Huh ... ah .... CLICK" "Monica, I miss your eyes ..." "Markie, I need to see you, I'll arrange an L.A. trip, no Hillary or risk this time ..." "Stanley, I've been thinking about your proposal and Cheryl and that Klein creep can get you on the ground floor of that fatgirl diet lawsuit." I want to see those phone records someday.
We're lucky to be alive. Reagan, Bush the "Eh" and Bush the "Outtamyway" all were/are snoozing by 11 p.m. sharp. I am comforted by that. At 3 a.m.'s lonely chime, Carter was trembling in fear and powerlessness, and Clinton was speed dialing Elanor Mondale and Denise Rich.
"Where I come from, anyone calling you at 3 o'clock in the morning is up to no good."
It's getting the capital of Lesotho for $250,000, then losing the $500,000 "Which tampon did Oprah use in 1994?" .
There are some incoming 3 am calls from CallerID locations like "Jockos Bail Bonds", "Mystic Lake Casino", "Auto Glass Ninjas", "Nguyen Pa Singh" and "Blocked Caller" that I route directly to voicemail. I'm still taking Heidi Klum's calls from Romania, but she needs to do something with her hair.
That's bogus. This case has snaked through the system, it is sitting in the "inbox" for the SCOTUS, and it is a politically powerful and potentially divisive issue. If I correctly saw, the SCOTUS firmly requested an "Amicus Curae" from the Bushies, when they were ducking door knocks and phone calls from the start.
The Supreme Court jurists want to know the position, regarding THIS lawsuit, of America's Chief Executive Officer and his Admnistration. This is a tinder box. The SCOTUS Justices want to see the legal arguments ... for or against ... of Americas greatest lawyer, Solicitor General Theodore Olson. They know if Olson thinks the lawsuit is poorly lawyered, weakly substantiated, unwisely pushed and insufficiently supported by precedent or law ... he'll tell Bush it blows, and Bush will advise that the WH oppose the suit on its legal merits, regardless of the political allure.
This suit could be a rotting fish, just in its legal professionalism and appropriateness. If the thing reeks, Bush is best to throw it into the river and find a REAL, precedent setting reverse racism injury.
The achillees heel of the Lott tenure was the way Chafee pop and brat, McCain, Specter, Jeffords and the "I'd Bangor" twins from Maine extracted tribute from him with no exchange of loyalty or tribute of their own. Chafee is positioning himself as the new Jeffords ... it's now or never fancy boy. No extortion accepted from the pale and scrawny soccer lads from Rhode Island. No McCain shenanigans, if he sabotauges a Bush/GOP proposal, he's off Commerce. Cry on Russert's shoulder.
I think this is a crucial discipline, easily leveled on the arrogant, ambitious and amoral ... aka United States Senators. Look how unprincipled and gutless John Breaux has been the last 10 years ... the Dems know how to bury their mavericks forever. Zell Miller and Ben Nelson are a mouse hair from going GOP in my opinion. Their desire to vote the conscience of their citizens, regardless of party affiliation, has ended their careers within the Democratic Party forever.
Good, we'll trade Miller and Nelson for Chafee, McCain and a Lieberman in a Pear tree.
Lott demonstrated he's not world class mettle. He proved that intellectually, ethically and in his gut he's lacking the level of professional skill, integrity and personal toughness that one of the top 10 political offices in the World demands. It's a blessing that this bloodletting occured before the new session opened. Direct from the political consumer research laboratories, our Senate is New and Improved. With Borax. Operators are standing by.
This is over. Let's get it on. Schumer is the enemy here.
Sometime back in the late 90s I nicknamed Uncle Bill "Lancalotta Links" ... but that moniker never really caught fire.
"Psssst .... always go with Ted in these matters."
The political weasels need to be gently grabbed by their muzzle and told to lay down in the laundry room as "bad boys" on this one. Hispanics don't give a crap about this case, and if they do, they're the entitlement junkies we'll never bring to our party anyway.
If Olson is behind this, let's get the engines started. It's a winner.
"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."
It truly is laughable. Carry on.
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