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Newly elected Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott will host a 10 a.m. coffee session for invited Republican guests Tuesday at the Phoenix Park Hotel on Capitol Hill in Washington to discuss Sen. John McCain's impending campaign for president with him and McCain. Lott, a supply-sider and social conservative, had not been allied with McCain previously. However, in his e-mailed invitation, Lott asserted, "John and I have been friends for many years, and my respect for him is unparalleled." Tuesday's meeting with McCain, Lott said, will "begin to build an organization that focuses not on our differences, but on our shared...

This Week, U.S. Senator Trent Lott, From Mississippi, Will End Speculation About Whether He Will Seek Re-Election Or Not. Lott Lost His Pascagoula Home To Hurricane Katrina And Has Said, With Retirement Age Approaching, He May Need To Do Something "More Lucrative". But Mississippi Republicans Have Urged Him To Run Again. Lott Plans To Hold A Press Conference Tuesday Morning To Announce His Decision.

Former House Majority Leader Trent Lott is mulling over two widely divergent options: Retiring from Congress – or running again in 2006 and trying to regain a top GOP leadership post. His decision could determine whether Republicans retain control of the Senate next year, according to nationally syndicated columnist Robert Novak. GOP officials in Mississippi believe Lott will probably retire, and they fear that would leave the door open for former State Attorney General Mike Moore, a Democrat, to win his Senate seat, Novak reports. But Lott has dropped hints that he might not only seek a fourth term, but...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 - ...During an appearance last weekend at the University of Mississippi, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, predicted that Mr. Lott would become Republican leader again... He also relishes keeping people guessing. After spending more than half his life in Congress, Mr. Lott, 64, is coy about plans...[he] is weighing whether to stay or leave for a more lucrative opportunity... Meanwhile, he is having a blast. "My outlook on life," he declared, "is whatever you do in life, do it with gusto and have fun. And I am." The senator has also thrown darts in the direction...

MSNBC.com Lott: 'Not comfortable' with Miers' nomination Miss. Senator says he'll need more information before supporting nominee MSNBC Updated: 11:34 a.m. ET Oct. 5, 2005 Add Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.) to the list of Republicans not entirely pleased with President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Lott, appearing on MSNBC-TV on Wednesday morning, told anchor Randy Meier that wants more information about Miers. "I need to know a lot more about her, her experience and her level of competence and what is her philosophy. I really don't know this lady and I do think I owe it...

Sen. Trent Lott berated both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and his own state's emergency management, MEMA, for being mired in red tape at a time of urgent need given the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. Lott said he has been trying to get FEMA to send 20,000 trailers "sitting in Atlanta" to the Mississippi coast, and he urged President Bush during a meeting Monday to intervene. He said FEMA has refused to ship the trailers until contracts are secured. "FEMA and MEMA need to be saying, 'Yes' to Mississippi's needs, not, 'No.," the former majority leader said in a...

WASHINGTON - The Senate is crammed with "lone wolves and immense egos," former Majority Leader Trent Lott writes in a memoir that settles a few scores with fellow Republicans and recounts an improbable partnership with a Democratic president. ADVERTISEMENT In "Herding Cats, A Lifetime in Politics," Lott wrote that Sen. Bill Frist (news, bio, voting record), his successor as majority leader, was one of the "main manipulators" in the events that resulted in his own loss of power. Lott lost his post in 2002 after making racially tinged remarks at a 100th birthday party for one-time segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond."Frist's...

After abandoning the negotiations with a declaration that he wanted to see up-or-down votes for all judges, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) quietly made a late, brief re-entry into the talks that resulted in a bipartisan deal short-circuiting the "nuclear" option efforts. On Thursday evening, May 19 - 10 days after he said he had given up on the talks - Lott trotted down from his fourth floor offices in the Russell Senate Office Building and dropped in to the second floor offices of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). With most of the group set to leave town within hours for a...

BILOXI - U.S. Sen. Trent Lott doesn't believe Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign immediately, but he does think Rumsfeld should be replaced sometime in the next year. "I'm not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld," Lott, R-Mississippi, told the Biloxi Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning. "I don't think he listens enough to his uniformed officers." Rumsfeld has been criticized since a soldier asked him last week why the combat vehicles used in the war in Iraq don't have the proper armor. Both Rumsfeld and President Bush have said more vehicle armor will be shipped to Iraq. Lott said the...