Free Republic

After spending about $100 on lower-bowl tickets and driving 2½ hours from the Lafayette area, Tracey Hernandez was nervous as she took her seat near midfield of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Friday night. It wasn’t the preseason game the Saints were about to play against Arizona that worried her — the dance instructor hardly watches football. What mattered to her was how her son, Jesse, would fare in his debut as the first-ever male member of the Saintsations, New Orleans’ NFL dance team.

U.S. Sen. Trent Lott will announce Tuesday whether he's seeking re-election this year, and his decision could either set off a political stampede in Mississippi or signal his attempt to seek a Senate leadership position. Republican insiders believe Lott, 64, is likely seek a fourth term. They cite his recent remark at the state Capitol that he'd stay in Washington "as long as it takes to get the job done for Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, at the very minimum.'' Lott - who lost his own beach-side house to Katrina on Aug. 29 - will reveal his political...

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...

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...

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...