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.

[habs4ever]

...Or the other possibility is that you are full of shit and don't know what you are talking about.A guy that gets the cap gains tax cut in 1997 isn't inept.A guy that stonewalls clinton in his last two years insn't inept.A guy that manages to get Bush's tax cut passed before Jeffords jumped isn't inept.

That description belongs to you, pooh.

[marajade]

In relation to what?

[Owen]

This is about winning. Lott is not strong enough, we think. The same was said of Dole in the same position. The truth is people in that position have to move legislation through and when you don't have 60 votes that means you have to compromise. If you don't, you don't get the PBA ban even voted on. It would be filibustered. Something will have to be traded for that.

We have to see that this is about winning and circle the wagons around Lott. Winning matters. If it didn't, we'd have all embraced Bauer or Robertson or someone else much farther to the right than GWB, and Gore would be president.

[Dave S]

Half the conservatives sound and act like just like the extreme liberal left. The Republican party has been hijacked, many miles back.

Actually to many of us, it seems like many of you have just reverted back to your Dixie Crat past. Fond memories of the good old days huh boys?

[mrsmith]

"What Lott did in the 60's was indefensible. "

http://www.africanpubs.com/americanmenpubs/Apps/bios/1008LottTrent.asp?pic=none

"... No African American students attended the University of Mississippi when Lott first entered the school. During Lott's senior year, on September 30, 1962, Air Force veteran James Meredith, protected by armed U.S. marshals, enrolled at Ole Miss. The small group was confronted by rock-throwing students and non-student protestors in violent demonstrations. By the time the violence ended, two people had been killed and many others injured and arrested.
Lott worked to keep Sigma Nu fraternity members from taking part. At the same time, he used his campus influence to call for peaceful campus integration. "

Wasn't an easy task to keep those boys quiet. He probably got called a lot of the same names (gutless, no-balls, etc.) he gets called here. Could have just avoided the threats and insults and stayed out of the way.

[marajade]

see 634... It maybe a good thing...

[Wingsofgold]

Where you from? The North was worse, far worse than the South when it came to DEsegragation. Boston, Ma. hated the very idea of bussing their children anywhere.

[Poohbah]

Let's see. No evidence in trial--Clinton surely didn't want that. A man who couldn't even get 51 members of his party to vote for conviction.

Power-sharing deal.

[okie01]

"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..."

Minor quibble, but the law refers to "same calendar year".

Thus, if Lott were to resign in December, a replacement would be appointed and a special election scheduled within 90 days.

If he were to resign in January, a replacement would be appointed and a special election for the Senate seat would take place in the November, 2003 general election (Mississippi is on an odd-year cycle).

[P-Marlowe]

But there are lots of 20 year old blacks who favor segregation in state universities now!

If these blacks want to kick the whites out of their university, then they are just as evil as Lott. Evil comes in all colors.

[fooman]

Gamma Delta Iota. That what I said when I was pressured to rush greek at southern college when I was 18.
That took guts and it gets harder as you get older.

[marajade]

"Lott is not strong enough, we think."

Bush is gonna be much more involved in Senate issues than he was the previous two years... There is nothing to fear with Lott in charge...

[EternalVigilance]

You can beat up on Trent Lott all you want, but we all make mistakes......

I, and I believe most, are more than willing to forgive mistakes. But we are not willing to let everything we have worked for be trashed by his continuous incompetence as a Majority Leader, either.

He simply needs to hand the Senate reins over to someone competent, like Santorum or Nickles, move to the back bench, or a cushy chairmanship, and I believe you will quickly see the GOP rank and file close ranks with him in front and behind.

At that time, we can all go on the attack against the hypocritical RATS in one united front.

[marajade]

As a non college grad I never really understood the attraction to belonging to a fraternity...

[EternalVigilance]

There is nothing to fear with Lott in charge...

Is that kind of like, "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you?" ;-)

[John Lenin]

No... We end up with Lott and 3% of the black vote.

But Busie could pick up an extra 9% of the Mexican vote leaving us with a gain of 4%.

lol

[marajade]

"But we are not willing to let everything we have worked for be trashed by his continuous incompetence as a Majority Leader, either."

Instead of platitudes how about some specifics?

[habs4ever]

Ahhhhhh...its all about Impeachment, isn't it? You expected Lott to to move mountains.I shake my head at such stupidity, and to hold such a grudge, for so long, too?

[sinkspur]

If these blacks want to kick the whites out of their university, then they are just as evil as Lott. Evil comes in all colors.

So, now Lott wanted to kick blacks out of Ole Miss?

Pretty soon, you'll have Lott strangling blacks in the cafeteria.

You drinkin'?

[Askel5]

Ya, Bush knew Lott was a "racist" or something in the neighborhood, which is why he feted him.

"Something in the neighborhood" ... ???

Is he a racist or not?

(Frankly, I figure he -- like Livingstone -- is simply ready to move on to bigger and better things and making whatever sized splash folks wish on his way out. More of the Sound and Fury on which we can blame the GOP's failures to pace themselves as they make the Evil Clinton look like an amateur at waging "moral wars" and preserving our liberties with their "strict constitutionalists" on the bench and in the legislature.)