Black Democrat could fill Lott's seat .

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.

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."

Posted on Mon, Jun. 17, 2002

Courting Minorities, Bush Promotes Homeownership
BY ADAM ENTOUS

ATLANTA - (Reuters) - Taking a break from Middle East diplomacy to court African-American and Hispanic voters before the November election, President Bush on Monday outlined plans to use loans and tax credits to boost the number of minority homeowners by 5.5 million before 2010.

"There are too many people ... who say, 'My eyes are shut to the American dream, I don't see the American dream,'" Bush told the Pryor Road community in Atlanta where a $68 million redevelopment program is underway.

"By the year 2010, we must increase minority homeowners by at least 5 1/2 million," he said. "In order to close the home ownership gap, we've got to set a big goal for America and focus our attention and resources on that goal."

Bush urged mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase financial support targeted to minority home buyers by as much as $440 billion and called on the real estate industry to join with "the mighty muscle" of the federal government to help reach his goal.

The president said he wanted Congress to commit $200 million annually of taxpayers' money to help 40,000 families each year with their downpayment and closing costs. He also proposed $2.4 billion in tax credits to encourage developers to build 200,000 homes for low and moderate income families.

"Part of economic security is owning your own home," Bush said after he watched foundations being poured and toured newly finished houses in the mixed-income community that replaced troubled public housing tenements built in the 1950s. "Part of being a secure America is to encourage home ownership."

CLOSE THE GAP

The initiative came as Bush prepared to lay out a pathway to Palestinian statehood, probably this week, underscoring the importance his political advisers place on domestic issues in the run-up to Congressional elections on Nov. 5.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said an announcement on the Middle East was likely to come "in the very near future," though he would not give a date. "The president has been consulting with world leaders. When he's ready to say something, he will say something," McClellan said. Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah consulted by telephone on Sunday.

Support from blacks, Hispanics and other minorities could give Republicans an edge in their bid to retake control of the Senate and hold onto the House of Representatives. Bush's own re-election hopes in 2004 may also hinge on minority voters.

"Three-quarters of white America owns their homes. Less than 50 percent of African-Americans are part of the home ownership in America and less than 40 percent of the Hispanics who live here in this country own their home," Bush said. "And that has got to change for the good of the country."

Barriers to minority home ownership included a shortage of funds for downpayment and closing costs, the complexity of the home-buying process as well as discrimination by mortgage lenders, he said.

While the overall homeownership rate has reached an all-time high of nearly 68 percent, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has found the gap between minorities and white households has narrowed only slightly.

Non-Hispanic whites have a 74.3 percent homeownership rate, compared to 48 percent for African Americans and 47.6 percent for Hispanics, according to census data for 2002.

In addition to greater lending by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Bush proposed raising $750 million by 2007 to supplement homeownership initiatives in minority areas and said he would call a White House conference on an unspecified date to address the minority home ownership gap.

"I mean, when I lay out a goal, I mean it," he said. "I'm serious about this. This is a very important initiative for all of America."

"MORE LOTT FALLOUT: SPLITTING THE BASE [Kate O'Beirne]

(Add to the long-term damage we can expect from the Lott affair the self-inflicted damage the White House risks doing with its conservative base. Conservatives are split over whether Lott ought to step aside. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and our own beloved Mark Levin no doubt speak for plenty of conservatives who are defending Lott, in part, because they can’t stand what they see as a capitulation to the dishonest grievance industry. Many of us fault the senator for handing the industry a race card and are unwilling to sacrifice a principled conservative agenda in an attempt to save him. The White House’s reaction to the controversy appears likely to alienate the entire conservative base. The president isn’t defending Lott and if he winds up similarly unwilling to defend the race-blind agenda conservatives have long championed, the movement will once more be unified--in opposition to his complete surrender to the race-baiters. >

VIA

http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/corner.asp

That should have been "I'll" not "I'ss" look in the transcript...

Anyway, I did...(**GACK I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT!!**)

It this the quote you were paraphrasing?

GORDON: Announced today, January 6th your colleagues will meet--your Republican colleagues--to see if, indeed, you can remain the face of the Republican Party. Many of them believe you to be out--some of them believe you to be out of step. Do you believe you'll survive that?

LOTT: That meeting was one that I urged and supported because, obviously, we've got to sit down and talk about this. It's not enough for me to say we're going to do things differently. I've got to have my colleagues...

GORDON: You believe you'll survive it?

LOTT: ... to join me.

Yes, I do because of what I'm going to say, what I'm going to do. And I think this actually can help us move an agenda that will be good for American, all Americans, equal opportunity for everybody, an improved society. And I'm going to work to make that happen.

Race-hate pimps like Je$$e and the Clinton$ will probably CHOOSE to interpret it to mean that Lott is admitting the Republican party is racist...and the rabid tinfoil hat nutball Dems and third patyiers will choose to believe it. IMO however, Lott SEEMS to be doing something just as bad, saying:

"I HAVE SEEEEEEN THE LIGHTA!! I HAVE SEEN THE ERROOOR OF MY WAAAYSAAAAH!!! I WILL EEEUUUUUSE MY POWER IN THE EEEEUNIIIIITED STATES SENATAH TO RIGHT THE WRONGSAH....THE INJUSTICESAH!!!!...THAT IN MY BUHLINDHESSAH, I HAVE ALLOOOOOOWAH TO BE PERPAH-TRATED-AH!!...UNDER MY VERY NOSAH!! I WILL DEEEEEDICATE MYSELFAH TO OPENING THE EYYYYYYYYYYYESAH OFA MY FELLOW CONGRESSAH PEEPLE-AH!!...AND WITHAH YOUR HELPAH ANDAH GUIDANCE-AH!!!...WE WILLL PREEEEEVAIL-AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"</my impression of Je$$e Jacka$$>

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