Posted on 12/17/2002 8:16:30 AM PST by KQQL
Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott's insensitive remarks have triggered a chain of events that could put a black Democrat in his Senate seat.
State Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole said if Lott resigns and Gov. Ronnie Musgrove appoints a replacement, Jackson lawyer Mike Espy would be the best choice. "If I had to pick, it would be Secretary Espy, hands down," Cole said. "He has Washington experience, and he's proven that he can build biracial coalitions. It would immediately begin the healing process."
Espy, who served in Congress and as U.S. secretary of agriculture, "would make a fine senator" if Lott is forced to quit the Senate because of his racially charged remarks at Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party, Cole said.
For now, Lott is resisting suggestions that he resign. But political observers are already discussing possible replacements for Lott. The list includes Espy, Attorney General Mike Moore, recently defeated U.S. Rep. Ronnie Shows and Rep. Chip Pickering, the Republican who beat Shows last month.
If Lott resigns, state law would require Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat, to appoint a replacement. A special election would be held within 90 days if the senator left this year. If he resigned in 2003, though, the election for the seat would coincide with next year's Nov. 4 balloting for statewide offices.
Assuming Musgrove would appoint another Democrat, either scenario would temporarily alter the partisan balance of the U.S. Senate, which Republicans now control by a two-seat margin. Equally interesting, though, is the impact Lott's resignation would have on state politics.
Start with Musgrove, who would have to appoint Lott's replacement. "Everything Ronnie Musgrove does is going to be to enhance his re-election prospects," said Marty Wiseman, a political scientist at Mississippi State University.
That could mean appointing a black to galvanize that base.
Espy probably has the most statewide appeal of any black Democrat. He demonstrated his ability to win votes from white and black voters from 1987 to 1993, when he represented Mississippi's 2nd Congressional District. In 1998, a four-year, $20 million corrputon investigation by Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz ended in Espy's acquittal.
Still, black Democrats are traditionally underdogs in Mississippi, which hasn't elected a black official in statewide balloting since Reconstruction.
Moore, a Democrat, may face better odds. Moore, who like Lott is from Pascagoula, is known nationwide for helping direct lawsuits against tobacco companies in the mid-1990s. He and Musgrove have often butted heads, though. Moore has even been rumored as a potential Musgrove rival for next year's Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
Another possibility is Shows, a Democrat from Bassfield who lost a bitter race against Pickering. Shows is "damaged goods right now, but he won't be damaged goods for long," Wiseman said.
On the GOP side, Pickering, a former Lott aide, is considered the senator's protege. Earlier this year, Lott was the chief backer of Pickering's father, U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering, who was nominated to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals by President Bush. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee killed the nomination by charging that the elder Pickering was insensitive to minorities.
It wouldn't be hard to imagine a campaign by the junior Pickering to reclaim Lott's seat.
And, said Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, the GOP should hope that Lott leaves this year, forcing an election within 90 days.
"Republicans would win, no question, if there were a shorter amount of time before the election," Sabato said.
Regardless of his partisan affiliation, any new senator would be less adept than Lott at bringing money to South Mississippi. Northrop Grumman Ingalls and local military bases would be more reliant on Sen. Thad Cochran, a Republican from Jackson who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Unless Lott changes his mind about his political future, though, such scenarios remain in the realm of imagination.
"Politics is a lot of fun to watch," Wiseman said. "It can be a lot more fun to watch than football, certainly from a Mississippi State perspective."
I wouldn't be surprised. < /sarcasm>
If is is another MLK holiday declared (added to the one we celebrate every year) GIVE ME A BREAK! Many of our nations hereos are not recognized. How selfish!! Next they will call for a Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton holiday- when pigs fly...
Conservatives will NEVER win so long as they shoot themselves in the collective foot as often as they do.
The Pubbies need to take a lesson in brinkmanship from the Dems. You ALWAYS support your guy, for the greater good, when the charge is bogus p.c. garbage and nothing more.
The rest of YOU losers have been doing your d*mnedest since then to make sure the Dems get a shot at getting the Senate back.
Buncha freakin' losers.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out a man like Lott is dangerous because he is, well, a man like Lott. After this passes, if he continues to stay, he will continue to screw up.
Has it ever occurred to any of you mindless cretins that Lott's groveling has been made necessary by people like YOU, who won't support him against p.c. bullsh*t?
Face it: You want Lott gone and you don't give a d*mn if it cuts off your nose to spite your face.
Until that attitude changes, conservatives will ALWAYS be losers.
Don't agree. The remarks - and the fact that the man capable of making them is the leading Senate Republican - were unacceptable.
Otherwise, I agree with what you say. Hopefully, what will come of this is the realization by Independent or Democratic moderate and conservative blacks that they can have an impact on the Republican Party, and be players in setting it's agenda.
Note that Newt Gingrich and Bob Livingston, when they stepped down from the Speakership, also left Congress.
It just isn't feasible to become a back-bencher once you've been ousted from the leadership. It's awkward for everyone. And Lott doesn't NEED to be a Senator, when all is said and done.
It's different than it is for Democrats, who can't do anything but write books no one reads and take consulting positions for think-tanks after they leave politics.
Just to set the record straight, I believe Dan was given that spelling by a adviser with him as he had it spelled correctly.
Now it's my fault that Trent Lott is a wuss.
Spare me.
His long history of spineless "leadership" belies your ridiculous charge.
Lott doesn't need to be pushed to cave in. He does it all on his own.
What about his threat to quit if he can't play the game on his terms? You're supporting a man that tries to blackmail his fellow republicans (up to and including the president) to remain in a position of power?
That's the first I've heard of that theory. It flies in the face of the facts, of course.
First of all, Lott's criticized here for not being very conservative, for bending to the will of the "moderate" (read "leftist") Republicans and the Democrats in the Senate. He is single-handedly blamed for Clinton's skate in the Senate trial after impeachment, which isn't precisely fair but at least is more accurate than saying he's a racist.
Jeffords himself has contended all along that HIS problem was with BUSH, not Lott. He didn't want to see Bush's terrible, awful, far-right wing policies implemented, he said. Maybe he figured Lott would just play "yes-man" to the White House, but somehow I don't think that's what you're intending to infer.
I think the hatred of Lott, which IMO stems solely from the Clinton debacle, has been irrational here on FR for far longer than this current flap has been going on, and comments like yours illustrate that fact very well.
I agree with you. This "no-win" situation is another example of Lott's ineptitude as a leader. This continuous groveling before those who are drooling at his slow, painful, political death, demonstrates his lack of vision and initiative.
Imagine this - Trent Lott and the Republican Caucus in the Senate go into a closed door meeting with a bunch of fan fare to decide Lott's fate. After an hour or two, Lott comes out and goes to the podium and says:
"We have unanimously decided to request the resignation of Robert Byrd."
And offer nothing more. Can you see the tide of battle changing? This statement would beg the question as to why? The media would be wetting themselves with the exitement of controversy and anger at being foiled. FWIW.
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