Republicans look to new Senate leader to help repair Lott damage (WE MUST BE GOOD TO MINORITIES)

Associated Press ^ | 12/23/2002 | LEIGH STROPE

[TLBSHOW]

Republicans look to new Senate leader to help repair Lott damage

WASHINGTON - Republican senators are gathering by telephone to elect a new leader they hope will help repair the damage that Trent Lott's racially charged remarks have had on the party's efforts to court minority voters.

Sen. Bill Frist (news, bio, voting record) of Tennessee, a White House favorite, emerged last week as the clear choice to replace Lott, who resigned from the leadership under pressure Friday.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record) of Nebraska said Frist would be elected — "I suspect unanimously" — by the 51 Republican senators in a conference call Monday afternoon. Frist would become majority leader when Republicans take control in the new Congress that convenes Jan. 7.

Lott's praise on Dec. 5 of Strom Thurmond's 1948 pro-segregation presidential campaign had put the Republicans on the defensive.

In his first public remarks since resigning, Lott told The Associated Press on Sunday that he had fallen into a trap set by his political enemies and had "only myself to blame."

"There are some people in Washington who have been trying to nail me for a long time," Lott said in an interview outside his home in Pascagoula, Mississippi. "When you're from Mississippi and you're a conservative and you're a Christian, there are a lot of people that don't like that. I fell into their trap and so I have only myself to blame."

Republicans are looking to Frist, a wealthy heart surgeon with relatively little national exposure, to represent a fresh face of the party, particularly in efforts to attract minorities.

"He personifies not just the rhetoric about idealism but as a life that has been lived," Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition." "There are actually hands-on examples of how he will make a difference. And I think it's a very exciting prospect."

Frist, 50, is considered an authority on health issues in the Senate. He still keeps his starched white lab coat in the trunk of his car, makes monthly visits to hospitals and clinics and goes on occasional overseas medical missions. When the anthrax scare surfaced on Capitol Hill last year, he worked to calm his colleagues.

Frist will "be a different face than what we've had," Sen. Orrin Hatch (news, bio, voting record) of Utah told ABC's "This Week." "I'm not criticizing what we've had, but I think Bill has a kind of a more moderate record and a more moderate approach toward things, and I think that it's going to be very difficult to criticize him."

Hatch, the incoming Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) chairman, praised President George W. Bush (news - web sites) — as the party's top leader — for reaching out to all people and dismissed the attitude "that only Democrats care about minorities."

"I think every Republican is working hard to try and be good to minorities and do what's right. We can't support some of the far-left, you know, extreme approaches toward race, but we certainly do believe in equality," Hatch added.

Republicans played down the damage of Lott's words. "In the long sweep of American history, this is going to be a blip," Sen. Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record) of Kentucky said on "Fox News Sunday."

Lott will remain in the Senate, but not in a leadership role. Republican sources said it appeared that Lott, a senator since 1989, had waited too long to end the controversy and lost any leverage he might have had to cut a deal to become a committee chairman.

"There is no apparent position of influence to which we can elect him," McConnell said. "He will, in my view, have enormous influence as someone who knows a lot about how the Senate works."

[wtc911]

You are right, and, once the bombs start to fall in late Jan.- early Feb. the big mo will swing back.

[TLBSHOW]

You forget that the GOP immune system is on constant hair trigger alert. Those who were frightened of being labeled "racist" are now satisfied.

KISS BAN ON PB ABORTION GOODBYE THANKS TO THE PRESIDENT

[maxter]

It ain't going to happen. The liberal establishment has overplayed their hand. Get ready. Things will get rolling now. Don't blink or you might miss one, as the items on the Republican agenda gets passed, one after another. It is a new day. Enjoy.

[dts32041]

I think not, half the country has forgotten we are at war, another quater thinks the Islamists are just fine people, another 10 percent don't give a damn one way of the other, and the last 15 per cent know we are at war, but nobody listens to that group.

Open borders, rights down the crapper, and what is the big news story Trent Lott.

I have a real reason to be optimistic, don't I.

Guess I will go support the war effort and spend a couple more bucks.

[TLBSHOW]

"There are some people in Washington who have been trying to nail me for a long time," Lott said. "When you're from Mississippi and you're a conservative and you're a Christian, there are a lot of people that don't like that. I fell into their trap and so I have only myself to blame."


He wouldn't say who those political enemies were.

Trent Lott

the enemy is the gutless republicans

[fogarty]

Indeed. It is very likely Frist will let the partial birth abortion (which is really another name for infanticide) ban die in Congress.

Bush will not push it forward, that is for certain.

I imagine Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and NOW are well-pleased, as are the population planners in the UN.

[TLBSHOW]

Lott had just finished hanging a swing for his granddaughter. Lott made no comment to reporters about resigning his Senate leadership post, and just wished everyone a Merry Christmas.

[TLBSHOW]

Indeed. It is very likely Frist will let the partial birth abortion (which is really another name for infanticide) ban die in Congress.

Bush will not push it forward, that is for certain.

I imagine Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and NOW are well-pleased, as are the population planners in the UN.


BUMP

it was all about pb abortion which the president now has stopped by this knife in lotts back

[sinkspur]

Bush will not push it forward, that is for certain.

If Bush doesn't mention it in his State of the Union, you'll know it's dead.

[AppyPappy]

These folks can wreck the GOP in elections.

Pass the PBA and all will be well. The pro-lifers will be happy and the pro-choicers will be smart enough to stay away from the issue. It's time we quit caving.

[maxter]

Lott has taken responsibility for his ill advised statements. He has done the right thing by stepping down. What you portray would definitely happen if he remained in his post. The republicans, for their part, had little choice. They have essentially made the play that will get this controversy behind them to a great extent.

[TLBSHOW]

Lott will remain in the Senate, but not in a leadership role. Republican sources said it appeared that Lott, a senator since 1989, had waited too long to end the controversy and lost any leverage he might have had to cut a deal to become a committee chairman.


"There is no apparent position of influence to which we can elect him," McConnell said. "He will, in my view, have enormous influence as someone who knows a lot about how the Senate works."


The Lott controversy may have a direct influence on the president's judicial picks, Hagel suggested.


One test could come soon: Bush's possible renomination of U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering for a federal appeals court seat.



http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=512&ncid=703&e=1&u=/ap/20021223/ap_on_go_co/senate_leader

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

So what should we do? Be nasty to minorities?

I work with the president's urban outreach program to bring more minorities into the party. Should I go and tell them all to go screw themselves and vote for the dems so we can lose more races and become a more liberal country?

I don't judge people by the color of their skin, I judge them in how they treat others.

[TLBSHOW]

of course not

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Pat kinda forgot about good ol' Trent's coziness with the Council of Conservative Citizens in recent times.

In case no one wants to look at their site, they still believe in racial segregation as a principle.

In other words, Trent Lott meant exactly what we thought he meant, and confirmed it during his interview on BET when he talked of race and immoral leadership.

I intend this to be my last post on this topic, so I'll leave everyone with this set of thoughts:

1. There is no objective standard by which anyone can state that government imposed segregation and the Jim Crow laws were good.

2. There is no objective standard by which ooposing the end of segregation and Jim Crow were good.

3. There is no objective standard by which anyone can say that the systematic exclusion of a race of people from the economy of their communities was good.

4. There is no objective standard by which anyone can say that opposition to full voting rights by blacks was good.

That century of apartheid that followed the Civil War left a stain on our history - and there are many people alive today who remember what that was like. It isn't remote and long past - so when blacks cringe over the type of remarks made by Lott, or by talk of states rights, it is particularly chilling.

It isn't PC pandering to feel some sense of shame over the things people in our parents and grandparents' generation did. My folks were Wallace voters in '68 - something they're not proud of now. I brought my own grandmother up short this week, when she tried to support Trent Lott based on a very little knowledge and a lot of stored up racial vitriol.

Anyway, I've said my piece on Trent Lott and race, and I'm really and truly sick of it.

Merry Christmas to all.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Ok, so why the " WE MUST BE GOOD TO MINORITIES" in your changed headline? That's a very racist statement.

We should be good to everyone.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Change my "were" in #s 1 and 2 to "was".

Jim needs a grammar check sometimes for those of us who don't proof before posting, LOL.

[Polybius]

Trent Lott....... the enemy is the gutless republicans

Some of us would say, "The enemy is a gutless Republican: Trent Lott".

Transcript: Lott Interview on BET

[KC_Conspirator]

The Republicans are the stupid party. This has never been about Trent Lott. Not from day one. Rush Limbaugh is one fo the few people who gets it. The progression of the attacks were coming and we did nothing about it. With the exception of El Rushbo, no one is defending the GOP, conservatives, US history, and the whole south which are being tarred by the media because of Trent Lott.

Just take a look at the arguements. Whenever some leftist complains about Lott and we point out their deafening silence on Robert Byrd using the "n" word and other democrat transgressions. The response is always, "But this is about Trent Lott". Then they go on to falsely attach rascism by proxy to all other political enemies while we stand by and watch it happen.