Lott to offer inside account with planned tell-all book

Clarion-Ledger Washington Bureau ^ | 09-05-03 | By Ana Radelat

[WKB]

Senator says he will sign deal with publisher to write his memoirs

WASHINGTON — Sen. Trent Lott says he'll sign a deal with an unidentified publisher this week to pen his memoirs.

The Mississippi Republican says he plans to tell all about the 1994 Republican revolution, initiated when voters gave control of the House and Senate to the GOP. Lott also plans to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at former President Clinton's impeachment and Lott's loss of his leadership job. Lott was ousted as Senate Republican leader last year after he made racially insensitive remarks at a party for then-Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party.

"I can't really say anything more about it until the publishing company puts out a press release," Lott said. "It's going to be about 30 years in Congress and 20 years in leadership, what I saw."

Lott did not reveal how much the publishing company would pay him.

While Lott said he would "let the chips fall where they may," the senator assured Congressional Quarterly that his memoirs would not be "a revenge book."

Marty Wiseman, head of the Stennis Institute for Government at Mississippi State University, expects Lott to write about his betrayal by people he considered friends as he struggled to keep his leadership job.

"I know he thinks people turned on him," Wiseman said.

The political science professor also said he expects Lott to disclose how his relationship with President Bush has changed. But Wiseman said the back-room peek at how the GOP seized power in 1994 may be the most interesting thing in the memoir.

"He presided over a turning point in history," Wiseman said. "It's going to be an absolute must-read."

Lott, son of a shipyard worker and public school teacher, worked his way through the University of Mississippi law school and up the political ladder. Lott began his political career working for former Rep. William Colmer, a Mississippi Democrat who retired in 1972 and helped Lott win his House seat.

Lott ran for the Senate in 1988 and was elected Senate majority leader less than 10 years later.

But the Mississippi senator's former Democratic rival will beat him to the bookstore.

In November, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., plans to release his book, an account of the most recent two-year congressional session that will be titled Like No Other Time.

[WKB]

Missippy ping

[varon]

Wonder which title he will choose. Will it be "Rah, rah, sis boom bah and other favorite cheers" or will he settle for "How to choose a politically correct wig"?

[mewzilla]

Tell all? I don't think so....

[Chemnitz]

A spin-all. Yes, that will be just fine. Subtle-title: "How I Ran as a Movement Conservative and Stabbed My Friends and Supporters in the Back, Often."

Splashed across the front cover jacket - Trent asks, "How could my friends betray me after all I did for them?"

[mewzilla]

"How I Ran as a Movement Conservative and Stabbed My Friends and Supporters in the Back, Often."

Now, if he explained why he did it, then that really would be a tell all.

[blackdog]

Since I paid him his wages in order to accumulate all his material, what say he just gives a speech on the senate floor, reading his manuscript instead?

Intellectual property rights dictate that he was on my payroll while accumulating this intellectual knowlege(as was his entire senate staff), therefore it's not his property to sell.

As a matter of fact except for any classified information he held, he should be required to tell us every detail of every encounter and meeting he ever held. That's the relationship that an employer shares with his or her boss.

The next time my boss asks me just what happened over business matters, I'll just tell him that he'll have to wait for my book.

EFFU Trent Lott!

[blackdog]

And my sound point of view goes to all Senators who write books(especially first ladies). That is my intellectual property, not theirs. If they want to write about Sox the cat, or their personal life exclusively that's fine. But the first time they put one word to pen outlining their official duties, that's my text not theirs!

Is there any lawyer out there who can back me on this one?

[blackdog]

And that especially goes for Sid Blumenthal. Paid by the public to do work for the whitehouse which is a public building, enjoying utilities and office equipment which is paid for by the public. Maintaining records, data, and memo's which are the public's property, and then writing a book based on all the public's property(his job experiences) and being compensated for it is a crime.

[Poohbah]

Which section of the US Code does that violate?

Does that mean that when Stormin' Norman wrote his memoirs, he became a criminal?

Does that mean that when a historian pores through miles of microfilmed records at NARA, and writes a book for compensation, he's a criminal?

[WKB]

Is there any lawyer out there who can back me on this one?

I agree but that is above my pay grade.

[MarkT]

Just how does one write a tell-all book about a do-nothing person?

[WKB]

and make catty remarks about Hilary's "fat ankles

or his favorite hair spray

[blackdog]

If you are an employee of a company and receiving compensation for your work from that employer, your work experiences including the intellectual ideas you accumulated during that time are the property of your employer. That is the way it works in private industry.

Just why we need to buy a book to discover what our employees have been doing is the height of insanity! The fact that the public is willing to accept this phenomenon is even funnier.

And yes! Those were my uniforms, bombs, radio's, desks, dead enlisted men, airplanes, bullets, and such Stormin Norman was playing with. The decisions in his head were formulated with an education I provided, experiences I paid for, and nourishment to fuel his brain were all supplied by we the people while he was on our dime!

No matter how noble or genuine the person. No matter how good or bad their actions. We are the owners of the professional experiences they have accumulated. They must be supplied to us free of charge. We bought them once already I might add.

[montag813]

We were better off with Trent Lott. Bill "Limp Wrist" Frist is a pathetic failure. He should resign after the cowardice he showed on the nominations, which led to an honorable man like Estrada being treated like a doormat by the Senate GOP "leadership".

[blackdog]

If the historian is a public employee it sure does make him a criminal. Now if that historian is a private person on his or her own dime combing public records that's a different story. Do you think your county zoning clerk can take all the minutes from zoning hearings and publish them into a tell all book to sell to the public and profit from? Of course not! They would be fired and any proceeds would be returned to the county.

Now if that zoning clerk wants to write a book on their personal feelings about zoning trends, about shopping malls, about cutting down trees, or the beauty of greenspaces, that's OK too. They just can't use the publicly owned information or intellectual property.

[blackdog]

Chief Moose fell into this conflict. Those experiences and matters of record are not his property. He was being paid by the county during that time. That's the limiting ten ton weight.

Now had chief Moose been a volunteer, or a person appointed to a position in which they were given absolutely no compensation, then and only then would it be OK.

Chief Moose had no case.

Chief Moose ain't no Trent Lott, Hillary, or Newt.

Funny how some people get a free pass huh?

[blackdog]

LG, Can you look at our argument in these posts and help me out here?

[VRWC_minion]

I hate to say this but this looks like this book is Lotts payment to stay on board as a senator. Its probably part of the deal that was cut. The rats paved the way for Hillary.

Personally, I'm not all that happy about these disguised compensation/bribes.