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."
It's just like beating the baby Jesus. There is no difference in Gawd's eyes,dontchaknow?
True,and the RINO's elected him as their leader. When you consider they know him a LOT better than any of US know him,what does that say about them? Remember,these are the same people that coronated Giddy Dolt.
Yes, I believe you are correct. Lots of gifts to and from Don Tyson.
That would be kind of hard to do,since JC is a Congressman,not a Senator. Allthough I will grant you the Dims could probably get away with something like that.
It's already been sorted out. Lott will step down late Friday afternoon.. The announcement will come after 5PM.
I'ts also a win-win situation for the alleged Republicans in the RNC and the White House. This gives them the excuse they need for not advancing a conservative agenda (something which Bubba-2 has no intention of doing),and allows they to keep their brain-dead sheeple fired up for the next election cycle.
If he does,will you continue to support Bubba-2?
A simple yes or no will do.
That's because they are a fully-owned subsidiary of the Dim Party. A mere branch office that is a neccessary pretense to keep the sheeple sleeping. We are a one-party state,and the Dim branch is the senior branch of the "one,true Party".
He swore a oath,and he had a moral obligation. He failed to meet his obligation and live up to his oath,all in the name of putting party ahead of country.
Of course, that rather ignores the political realities of the time, but we're good at that around here.
Weasel words used by the spineless one and his supporters back then to excuse their lack of courage. They put politics ahead of country,and deserve nothing but contempt for doing so.
The same thing that has been happening all along,Bubba-2 will cave and do what the Dims want him to do. He makes even Lott look like a man of principle."Ah'm a uniter,not a fighter."
They don't need him anymore. They have Bush.
I have no idea what you are talking about. If you pasted in the quote you are responding to, I could respond as well.
Correction: Thanks to all the useful "conservative" idiots who picked up Jesse Jackson's "Lott is a Segregationist" smear campaign for the political expediency of replacing him with somebody they like better as speaker.
Excuse me. We didn't make those idiotic comments. Lott did.
I know this is going to be hard for you to believe, but you are not the center of the universe and I don't feel like clicking three links to figure out what the hell you are talking about. If it's important enough to flap your gums over, it ought to be important enough to quote, otherwise don't waste my time.
And as far as Lott's idiotic comments, you carried the Leftists water for them by chiming in on the smear campaign. People say stupid things every day. Every single conservative politicion is now a prospective target of this tactic, thanks to morons like you.
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