We still have the Doomsday Option:
What about a Majority Leader who isn't nostalgic for the Dixiecrats?
Posted on 12/17/2002 11:00:34 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Trent Lott should resign as the leader of the Republicans in the United States Senate, and he and his colleagues should convene in Washington, D.C., early next week to select his replacement. I understand this will be inconvenient for Sen. Lott and for many of the senators.
War is also inconvenient. I have heard no objections from the hundreds of thousands of Americans deployed across the globe that the war on terrorism or the looming confrontation with Iraq is inconvenient. War puts all things into perspective. It especially puts into perspective the small beer of Sen. Lott's embarrassment.
I understand that Sen. Lott is not a racist. This is now wholly beside the point. The country deserves its best team in charge. So does the Republican Party. No one can seriously make the case that Senator Lott is the best the Senate and the GOP can do in 2003.
Even if this was just about political advantage, the case for his resignation as Majority Leader could not be more clear. Sen. Lott has the political soul of a man who bets on his favorite horse to show. He is to Washington, D.C., what the present defense is to the NFL. If I believed in reincarnation, I'd swear we'd found the new location of Gen. George McClellan.
Since stepping on his own career ten days ago, every single decision taken by Sen. Lott has been wrong. Every tune he played was flat, and every maneuver he tried, transparent. These past few days have been like watching Steve Martin dance – funny and awful at the same time. Mostly awful, though.
There are now three camps within the GOP. There are the Lott supporters who believe he is the best man for the job. Delete from these numbers his family, his employees, and the lobbyists who have his cell phone number, and this caucus totals less clout and numbers than any delegation from Guam.
Then there are those who say he should go because he's an anvil around the GOP's neck and those who say he should stay as Majority Leader because to resign would be to cave into the PC police. Over at FreeRepublic.com, a thread devoted to polling that band of the activist hard-core yields a split of roughly 60-40 favoring Lott's removal.
The political case for Lott's stepping down is overwhelming. There are plenty of downsides to his staying, including the enormous risk Lott poses to the fundraising effort ahead. Someone should check the new donor list at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The tens of thousands of new contributors that arrived during the last cycle were not drawn by Sen. Lott but by a desire that President Bush get a fair shot at moving his agenda. Sen. Lott is hurting the progress of that agenda. If he stays, I suspect most of those contributors will go. And they won't be back anytime soon.
There is also the inevitable repetition of Lott's Thurmond speech at every turn from now until Lott resigns the leadership post. And to those who say that the endless loop of replays won't be fair: Who told you politics was fair? Carville and Begala are supposed to accept Lott's apology and just move on?
Far more important than the political calculations, however, is the stark fact that a country at war deserves its best leadership in every significant post. There is just no way that Sen. Lott is the best qualified individual to lead the Senate at this time. Not after such a massive, self-inflicted wound.
He has himself recognized the huge error involved even as he has struggled to persuade the country that it was a mistake of the head and not the heart. He will have many years of public service left in which to add to a record that is in many respects admirable, but he should not insist on trying to do so from the post of majority leader.
Those who warn that Sen. Lott might quit the Senate rather than be embarrassed by a demotion slander Lott. He screwed up, yes, but leaving his job in the middle of a war and ceding control at least in part to the Democrats would be craven, and there is no serious evidence that he would do such a thing.
Sen. Lott should simply do what is in the best interest of the country which he has served in high office for many years, and which is now a country at war which doesn't have time for sideshows. He should gracefully step aside and promise to work on behalf of the country and the party from a new post.
The next GOP leader might be more or less conservative, more or less confrontational. But he or she would not be the story. And that is the bottom line.
And I am William Wallace...MUD
We still have the Doomsday Option:
What about a Majority Leader who isn't nostalgic for the Dixiecrats?
Sen. Lott should simply do what is in the best interest of the country which he has served in high office for many years, and which is now a country at war which doesn't have time for sideshows. He should gracefully step aside and promise to work on behalf of the country and the party from a new post. ***
This will be the measure of the man.
That's beside the point.
Think a few moves ahead in the chess game. The Dems actually want Lott to remain Majority Leader. That's why Daschle didn't attack Lott until Maxine Waters bullied him into doing so. That's the best reason for getting rid of Lott.
Daschle wants the Republicans to have the weakest possible Majority Leader. And the only thing weaker than a Trent Lott is a discredited Trent Lott. (He was bad before, and he got even worse on BET. A lot worse.)
At least we can fight back if the Dems attack the new Majority Leader. With Lott in power, the Dems will just bully us. (On the other hand, if they attack our new ML too much, the backlash against the Dems by swing voters will ruin them.)
I think you need to quit worrying about replacing Lott. You are probably reading too much into the idea of the DNC's papers. (For that matter, the Dems may very well cool off and start saying that they accept Lott's groveling apologies. [That would be proof that we'd better get rid of him, of course.])
I personally think some FReepers are too interested in getting into a fight with the Dems. This is clouding their judgment. We need to pick our fights more carefully, not let the vicious Dems bait us into dumb fights.
We ought to fight the Dems by upstaging them in the matter of their charges of racism. (Lott needs to go.) And we ought to put a good Leader in place for the legislative and judicial fights to come. (Lott definitely needs to go.)
I'm not " reading into DNC papers " at all. I'm reading what is already out there ... the new investigation and leaks about Nickles. Besides, the GOP senators hate Nickles, so which GOP senator would be selected to replace Lott, should he agree to step down ( and that's the ONLY way they can have a revote ) as SML ? You think that this will blow over, even with Lott's removal ? That's naive in the extreme. The Dems have seen how sucessful this maneuver has been and IF Lott steps down, it will only embolden them more. We lose either way.
This is NOT " besides the point " at all. This " Borking " is the whole point.
That doesn't make him " the smartest man in America " ; not by a long shot.LOL!
You couldn't tell that he has any intellect by reading this column.
Ouch!Perhaps not, but THIS quote puts him up there in the top ten percent:
"Sen. Lott has the political soul of a man
who bets on his favorite horse to show." -
Hugh Hewitt
picture~poem from Terrell Neuage
.
(If you want OFF - or ON - my "Hugh Hewitt PING list" - please let me know.)
Over at FreeRepublic.com, a thread devoted to polling that band of the activist hard-core yields a split of roughly 60-40 favoring Lott's removal.That would be THIS thread:
HUGH HEWITT ASKS: Do FReepers Think Lott Should Stay or Go?
Posted by doug from upland
On 12/16/2002 4:58 PM PST with 256 comments
dfu - Hugh Hewitt question | 12-16-02 | dfuFReepers, I was just on the air with Hugh Hewitt.
He wanted to see one thread in which we answer the question --- should Lott stay or go.Please give Hugh a one word answer. Thanks.
DFU -- go
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