LOTT THREATENS TO QUIT THE SENATE IF FORCED FROM LEADERSHIP

Newsnight with Aaron Brown | 12/13/2002 | Jonathan Karl

[sinkspur]

Trent Lott, in a conference call with 27 GOP Senate Republicans today, said that he would leave the Senate if forced from the Leader position.

Jonathan Karl said three or four of the Senators viewed this as "blackmail," but that the majority still support Lott and want him to continue as Leader.

[dano1]

What if he just says he is going to caucus with the Dixiecrats?

[SwatTeam]

Oh, for Pete's sake get a grip! I don't know where you are from or how old you are but in the 60's in the South people were just coming to terms with desegregation. In hindsight, everybody alive now who lived those days KNOWS it was immoral. But at the time it was a way of life. By your rigid views, anybody over the age of 60 from the South is a racist, immoral, bigoted segregationist. Do I have that right?

[Poohbah]

So you prefer blackmail from the Dems rather than our own Lott?

You know, that outrage would be a LOT more convincing if it were aimed at Trent Lott for getting us into this mess.

We are seeing the desperate dems at work here.

Yes, we are. And you're playing right along with them.

Don't you think they will pull this same stuff on another weak spot?

I sincerely doubt there is ANYONE as weak as Lott is in the GOP.

We do need to make them see this race baiting is going to cost them more than it does us.

And you do that by ruthlessly sntaching the issue out of their hands, but you'd prefer to let Lott inflict the death of a thousand cuts.

[RCW2001]

Sorry. I just had to get that creaming out of my system...

MISS MARPLE...FORBID!!!

[Political Junkie Too]

we see now that this is NOT Lott saying this, but rather our favorite unidentified supporters of Lott!

So, the Whisper Campaign begins.

-PJ

p.s. Gotta love those "destruction machines." Wish we had one...

[over3Owithabrain]

Well I think the GOP biggest problem in keeping Lott in charge are their own followers. Many may lament it, but I'm proud of the fact we draw the line on our politician's behavior, unlike the Dems. Even without Hutchinson, Packwood, etc. we have retained power. So why do some of our own complain we're not more "loyal" to fools and knaves like the Democrats are?

[Torie]

McCain to Kristol to Karl? Are you a fan of baseball or what?

[sneakypete]

Just who in the hell are you calling bubba 2?

Not smart enough to figure it out on your own?

[Senator Pardek]

Hey you - don't get me involved in your brawls!

P.S. - does anyone think we Yankees could get away with referring to any of our former colonies as the "Magnolia State"?

[deport]

The link is to Mississippi law and has nothing to do with the other states you mentioned.....

Depends upon when the resignation occurred. If it's less than a year to a regular scheduled election then the regular election would be used. If over a year then there would be an election to fill the remained of the term.... the election would be within 90 days after the gov. issued the proclamation for the election... In either case the gov. would appt a replacement until the election decided the matter. that's my reading but someone can correct if I'm wrong.

[habs4ever]

You haven't toned down your rhetoric all week, poohbah.Still chomping at the bit, and even finding it fun to smear the man with your "musings".

[ClancyJ]

End game senate control to the democrats.

Well - this is a safer method of winning power - don't have to break any laws as in voter fraud. Remember - Desperate Dems, Remember - Desperate Dems.

We will have to stand firm and make sure this method also does not work. If they will use FBI files, you know they will band together and try to run people out of office. We don't have much chance unless we band together and protect our people.

[Miss Marple]

You know how you watch Senatorial and Congressional elections?

Well, I watch Kristol.

I am telling you Torie, he is Iago from Othello.

[puroresu]

I think Lott has been a poor Republican leader over the years, but for me the issue is stopping a 'rat smear campaign from working yet again. I think political correctness is one of the greatest threats to political freedom in our country today.

But people are so damned short-sighted. They think appeasing racist pimps like Sharpton, Conyers, Waters, and the rest is a way of buying their good will. They fold like a house of cards in the wind the moment race is invoked, however moronic the allegations.

People don't seem to understand that even as we speak, there are young conservatives all over America taking positions on issues that could be thrown in their face 30 or so years from now if they reach the upper tiers of political power, and if Political Correctness retains its grip.

Take gay marriage as an example. If the liberals get their way, and we have gay marriage imposed on our society, does anyone think that alone will satisfy them? No, they'll also find it necessary to completely and utterly destroy anyone who opposed them on that issue. So in the year 2034, the son or daughter of someone on this board may be up for a judgeship, or a cabinet post, or the presidency of a university. And maybe that son or daughter, while in college this year (2002) voted against a resolution endorsing gay marriage in the student senate. Maybe they worked with the Boy Scouts over the summer in some capacity. Or maybe that very year (2034) they'll say something nice about an elderly man who once ran on an anti-gay marriage platform.

So how is that gonna look in Politically Correct 2034? Your son or daughter is going to be declared to be a homophobic monster, a bigot, a hate monger, and worse. "We can't allow someone to serve on a court who once voted against gay marriage," the leader of the 46 member congressional LesBiGay caucus will declare. "We already know this person is a bigot and a hater", the head of the ACLU will announce, adding, "Revelations that he worked with the Boy Scouts back 30 years ago before court-ordered sexual desegregation only adds to our concern".

Meanwhile, here at Free Republic, half the so-called conservatives will collapse and grovel before the PC Totem. "If that idiot didn't see that banning gay marriage was evil back in 2002, then they don't need to be part of our conservative movement", they'll shout.

Political Correctness is a scourge on our society. Every inch given to the PC Thought Police is another slit in the jugglar vein of human liberty, freedom of thought, and individual dignity.

Lott fell afoul of the prevailing PC zeitgeist, which is that everything and everyone associated with the old south was an evil abomination who should have been eradicated from human history. Most people today in the south are no longer segregationists, and that's a good thing. But to rob southerners (and I am one) of their heritage, their history, and their ancestry is just wrong.

Strom Thurmond was an "old south" guy who ran for president 54 years ago on an "old south" platform that included a lot of things people find offensive today. Thurmond changed and came to accept blacks as full citizens. But the man doesn't have to have his face stomped into the mud to show that we reject his old beliefs. Many southerners look at Thurmond and see their granddad, who probably also didn't want the races mixing together.
Most southerners look back at men such as Thurmond, Richard Russell, William Fulbright, Russell Long, Sam Ervin, Harry Byrd, and many others with respect. Yes, they were segregationists, but it isn't all they were. There's a building in Washington named after Russell, who was one of our great defense experts, but who also voted against every civil rights bill and denounced race mixing on national television.

So what do we do? Eradicate them from history? Demand that nothing positive be said about them? Compare them to Nazis for supporting stupid segregation laws?

If that is route we're going to take, then we'd better be prepared for a major historical pogrom against the non-PC. Because just as sure as I'm sitting here writing this right now, the time is coming, very soon, when "slave owning" Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and other will need to be declared political non-persons.

I know it's tempting to follow the herd on PC issues. The allegations of racism, sexism, and all the other isms are scary. They can end careers. They can ruin lives. But the Democrats count on a large segment of the Republican Party to totally go into boot licking mode the moment they howl "racism". It's time for us to stop it and stand up to the PC bullies. Clarence Thomas should be our role model for this. After all, one of the many lame charges against him was that he kept the Georgia flag, which contains the Confederate flag, on his desk.

Now, having said all this, Lott should not threaten to resign from the Senate if he loses his leadership post. Emotionally, I understand how he feels, but I would hope he realizes he owes is to us not to throw the Senate to the 'rats.

[EternalVigilance]

Yeah, it's silly...is that enlightening enough?

Anyone who thinks this is some kind of conspiracy to get Lott is being silly.

The simple fact is that Lott has turned off the Republican base for a long, long time...so when he got himself in trouble by his own foolishness in the vicious environment of Washington, D.C., he had no friends left.

Sheesh...if this level of incompetence can't get us some new leadership nothing ever will...we will be doomed to be stuck with Lott's smarmy mug representing the GOP forever, or until we lose the Senate. At this rate, the latter is looming on the horizon like a bad storm.

[sinkspur]

God don't take no alibis.

God better forgive stuff you and I did FORTY YEARS AGO or we're both going to hell.

If you don't forgive Lott, well, c'est' la'vie.

[Darlin']

"P.S. - does anyone think we Yankees could get away with referring to any of our former colonies as the "Magnolia State"? "

LOL. You must not have ever been to Mississippi.

[Wingsofgold]

Could be we don't want a democrat majority in the Senate. Could be some of us don't want a democrat anything.

[Texasforever]

I wish I had said that. I am impressed.

[P-Marlowe]

In the 60's there was a general recognition amongst even Southerners that Ssegregation was evil and that it needed to be discarded. Remember LBJ? He was a southerner. He was a good old boy. But he recognized that segregation was wrong and he fought to end it.

At the same time LBJ and many other Southern Democrats and Republicans (like B-1 Bob) were fighting to end segregation, Lott was busy fighting to keep the ni--ers out of his little fraternity.

I can't excuse that. Sin is Sin. Treating blacks like second class citizens was wrong then and it is wrong now. What Lott did in the 60's was indefensible. What he said last week was indefensible. We don't need him as the face of our party. We can do better than that. Much better.