Posted on 12/13/2002 7:40:55 AM PST by ewing
Senator Charles Hagle (R-Nebraska) broached the prosepect that Lott's job is in jeopardy.
'Is this a big enough deal to cause a revolution in the Republican conference?I dont think so, but these things have a way of going further than expected.'
Increasingly this week Lott has been subjected to the drip-drip-drip of criticism and scrutiny that ofeten drives officials from power in Washington.
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) suggested Thursday that the GOP leader do more to diffuse the controversy, perhaps appearing at a news conference or other forum 'in which he just makes clear that he is wrong.'
snip A senior Senate aide says that Lott is trying to weather the political storm, hoping it will calm during the holidays.
'If it [the Lott racial controversy] doesn't die down, I think the Senate Republican caucus will be forced to give a vote of confidence/no confidence in him the aide exclusively told the Los Angeles Times in the Friday morning editions.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I wonder if that has anything to do with Mary Matalin being fired by the White House.
Amen!
Which is why so many conservatives were quick to call for Lott to step down from a leadership position over this.
You know the old saying "dance with the one that brought you". Lott has spent too much time courting moderates and failing to push conservative bills. Now, when he needs the help of the party base to keep his post, he doesn't have it.
The base only sees him as a liability as a leader. There is no conservative argument for keeping Lott as leader. "Let's keep Lott so he can keep watering down the conservative agenda." That's not going to win much of the party base to his side.
I agree. But so much heat seems to be coming from his own party. I think that the Republican caucus wants a "regime change."
One thing is for sure, his POV is not a surprise to anyone. So why now?
This is a very old "joke." Sure it was overheard recently?
Sen. Hagel: Don't be a fool, you can't get away.
Sen. Lott: Chuck, hide me. Do something! You must help me, Chuck. Do something!
Guards rush in and grab Lott. Chuck stands impassively as they drag Lott off.
Freshman Senator: When they come to get me, Chuck, I hope you'll be more of a help.
Sen. Hagel: I stick my neck out for nobody.
I remember when Ft. Lauderdale's beaches were desegregated in 1966. I was a little girl and wasn't allowed to go to the beach; my dad went on the first day to see how everything was going. (Were the Negroes going to destroy beach? Would the water get dirty?)
Well, Ft. Lauderdale beach was ruined in ensuing years. But not by blacks. Instead, the beach became the haven of mostly white, drug-addicted, teenage runaways. Respectable black stopped going.
Finally, zoning put stop to "activities on the strip" by reducing parking and redeveloping the area. The runaways went some place else. I don't where; no one, black or white, cared.
Continuing his upward trajectory, Senator Byrd became a member of the Senate Leadership in 1967, when he was selected by his colleagues as Secretary of the Democratic Conference. In 1971, he was chosen Senate Democratic Whip. In 1977, he was elected Democratic Leader by his Democratic colleagues, a position he held for six consecutive terms. For the 12 years he held the position of Democratic Leader -- from January 1977 through December 1988 -- Senator Byrd served as Senate Majority Leader six years (1977-80, 1987-88) and as Senate Minority Leader six years (1981-86).
In 1989, for the first time, Senator Byrd had the opportunity to serve as Chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, on which he has held membership since the beginning of 1959. Also in 1989, Senator Byrd was unanimously elected President pro tempore of the Senate, a post that placed him third in line of succession to the Presidency and gave him the distinction of having held more leadership positions in the U.S. Senate than any other Senator of any party in Senate history. In June 2001, in an unprecedented shift of leadership, Senator Byrd regained the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee and was re-elected President pro tempore of the Senate.
This biography says Byrd was elected president pro tem. I thought you got it automatically by virtue of seniority. It seems the Senate RATs elected him president pro tem again after Jeffords jumped last year. That was after Byrd's "white N*****" comment, wasn't it?
But the thing is that one of the things that Thurmond ran on was for southerners to retain the "right" to lynch blacks. There's a sample ballot printed by his party floating around in some of these threads. The sample ballot actually bemoaned the fact that Truman was anti-lynching.
Because now is when the budgets and committee assignments are being decided for the next session, which begins in January. The Pubbies were talking about a 66-33% split of the Senate operating budget, while the Dems were demanding a 50-50% split. Whatever his flaws, Lott was leading the resistance to the Democrat demands for parity and "bi-partisanship." By taking Lott out now, the Dems improve their position for the next session.
I maintain that this was a planned hit, and that if Lott hadn't said these particular words at the birthday party, the Dems would have found some other pretext for launching this attack at this time.
This summs up what is happening here.
Personally, I can't wait 'till Tom Osborne decides he's ready for promotion to the Senate.
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