Lott to Quit Senate before New Year’s Day

This journal bears little love for Mississippi’s Republican Senator Trent Lott. He typifies just about everything wrong with the southern evangelical wing of the GOP. He is, however, capable of finding compromises that result in things getting done in Washington, a rare talent these days. His decision to retire from the Senate before the year is out creates a mess for the Republican Party that it, and the country, could do without.

In October, Roll Call wrote, “In what could be a new incarnation of the successful bipartisan ‘Gang of 14,’ Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) hosted a meeting this week with a handful of the Senate’s most notable compromisers to figure out how to unclog the gridlock that has slowed the chamber’s progress this year. About half a dozen moderate and independent-minded Republicans and at least one Democrat — Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) — participated in the Members-only huddle, which was held quietly in Lott’s Capitol office Tuesday morning. Afterward, few Senators offered much detail, but several said there’s a feeling among them that the narrowly divided chamber no longer can operate at an impasse and they want to find ways to avoid the growing number of filibusters sidelining Senate legislation this year.” Legislation gets done in the center, as the senator has learned over the years.

Mr. Lott, now 67, has been a figure in Washington since he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1972. He rose to House Republican Whip (an office that lacks the real teeth that one would see in a Party Whip in a parliamentary democracy but which is still important) in 1980. He won his Senate seat in 1988. In 1995, he became the GOP’s Senate Whip, and in 1996, he succeeded Bob Dole as Majority Leader when Mr. Dole resigned to run for president.

The Washington Post noted, “Lott’s departure is equally stunning because, after cruising to his re-election last year, he completed a political rehabilitation from allegations of racial insensitivity because of remarks he made at a 100th birthday party for Strom Thurmond in December 2002, which led to his banishment from GOP leadership. Last November, after four years as a back-bench Republican who burnished his image as a deal-maker, Lott won a narrow race to become GOP whip, the No. 2 post in leadership.”

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour will appoint a successor, but a special election is expected next November. Congressman Chip Pickering is a likely appointee and Republican nominee. Mr. Pickering lacks Mr. Lott’s depth of experience, and some say he is more beholden to the intolerant right than Mr. Lott ever was. His feet are probably too small for the shoes he must fill, and that makes Mr. Lott's seat far less safe for the Republicans.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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