11/26/2007
Mississippi Senator and Minority Whip Trent Lott to Resign
Mississippi GOP Senator and minority whip Trent Lott will resign his Senate seat before the end of the year, NBC reported this morning:
"While the exactly reason Lott is stepping down before he finishes his term is unknown, the general speculation is that a quick departure immunizes Lott against tougher restrictions in a new lobbying law that takes effect at the end of the year. That law would require Senators to wait two-years before entering the lucrative world of lobbying Congress. Also unclear at this point is how Lott's seat would be filled. One Lott supporter said he hoped Republican Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour would appoint U.S. Representative Chip Pickerting to the post, keeping the seat in the hands of Republicans, at least in the short term."
Or, as Joe at AmericaBlog suggests, perhaps he just misses his friend Strom Thurmond.
Lott's remarks at Thurmond's 100th birthday party have not been forgotten, despite apologies. At that party, he referenced Thurmond's run for President in 1948 on the Dixiecrat ticket on a racial segregation platform: "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years, either."
Lott made his most well-known comment about homosexuality in a June 1998 television interview, when he said, "It is [a sin]....You should try to show them a way to deal with that problem, just like alcohol...or sex addiction...or kleptomaniacs."
NBC says a formal announcement may come from Lott as soon as today.
Posted 8:14 AM EST by Andy Towle in Mississippi, News, Republican Party, Trent Lott | Permalink
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I won't miss him. Read this and you won't either:
http://infologr.freehostia.com/tag/trent-lott.html
Posted by: Alex | Nov 26, 2007 9:43:46 AM
good riddance!
Posted by: vinny | Nov 26, 2007 9:47:59 AM
And people say that Black Americans vote for the Democratic Party because we're too politically unsophisticated--we don't know that there's no real difference between the Democrats and Repulicans, and the Dems take us for granted. It was the mentality of people like Trent Lott that made Blacks abondon the Party of Lincoln. The Republicans decided to dump the Blacks and embrace southern Whites. The result was the rise of the Trent Lotts.
The Nixon/Atwater/Lott/Rove "Southern Strategy" elected many Republicans and they've dominated the White HOuse--but maybe that's about to come to an end.
Sorry for the school marmish history lesson this morning, darlins'...I must be feeling educamacated.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Nov 26, 2007 9:49:10 AM
The sooner we are rid of racist trash and the whole repugs lot, the better off we are. The Dems are indeed not much better but Al Gore refuses to run again.
Posted by: DC ARNOLD | Nov 26, 2007 11:02:57 AM
While, I'm not black, I'm with Derrick, and for the life of me don't get why anyone would vote for the ilk of Lott, or any of the others in the Southern arm of the GOP. Not one of them seems to have anything in their hearts other than hate, either for blacks, gays, and now the Hispanics who are coming in. They will all roast in hell, along with the racists who vote them in year in and year out. Do they ever vote issues that affect their daily lives, or is it who can be the one screeching about the good old days of slavery and Jim Crow and the right to fly the confederate flag and want the confederate currency bought back? But, I also have to admit, its not just the ones in the South who subscribe to this hateful trash.
I still say, hopefully before I die, there will be a viable third party.
Good riddance to bad rubbish, and, lame singer.
Posted by: Sebastain | Nov 26, 2007 11:29:55 AM
The real reason Sen. Lott is resigning is because of his disappointment that his title as Minority Whip does NOT in fact allow him to whip minorities. (Thanks to Bill Maher for that line.)
Posted by: Andy G. | Nov 26, 2007 12:07:08 PM
Will Lott trade his whip
For lobbyist credentials,
Or get his soul back?
Posted by: Politiku | Nov 26, 2007 11:05:02 PM