Countdown - Lott stepping down
Senator Trent Lott and Representative Newt Gingrich are the dynamic duo. They were the ones that set up a system that rewarded loyalty to them and the party above loyalty to your family and friends. You wanted to get a bill to come up for discussion you had to pay. If you wanted to get re-elected, you had to pay. For their friends, piles of cash and no opposition in the primaries. For their enemies, the wrath of the right wing, including Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. That’s how it was. Things have changed. The mighty have fallen. Newt requested that his backers for president raise $20 million, if I’m not mistaken, they didn’t come close. Senator Trent Lott has been up and down over the last several years. He butted heads with the White House and lost. He lost his position has Senate Majority leader, in part because the White House wanted him out. He won the Senate Minority whip by one vote.
Suddenly, he called a press conference and will resign from the Senate before his term is over. Why did he leave so suddenly? I’m guessing that he is involved in something bad and it may come out soon.
From American Progress:
Yesterday, Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS) announced he would resign from the Senate before the end of the year. Lott’s departure was “stunning” for its timing, observed the Washington Post. Currently occupying the number two position in the Senate GOP leadership — after enjoying a “political rehabilitation from allegations of racial insensitivity” — Lott “cruis[ed] to his re-election” just last year. With this sudden resignation, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) said yesterday that he would “call a Special Election for United States Senator to be held on November 4, 2008,” an election which may violate Mississippi state law. The resignation has sparked a “round of maneuvering inside the Republican conference,” with Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) announcing he will run for the leadership position. While Lott has not yet clarified a specific motive for his retirement, the “decision will complete a two-year roller coaster ride for Lott and his emotional investment in the Senate.”
THE LOBBYIST’S SENATOR: Lott has warmly embraced the entreaties of lobbyists while in the Senate. For example, he “tops the list” of “lawmakers who have most frequently been jetted around the country aboard the luxurious private jets of Corporate America.” In 2006, he voted against establishing a Senate Office of Public Integrity. Lott, whose son is a lobbyist, was part of a small bloc of conservatives who voted against the ethics reform bill in August that included a two-year revolving door ban, reflecting his longtime opposition to lobbying reform. It is speculated that Lott is retiring so that he can avoid these new restrictions on former members entering the lobbying world, which kick in after 2008. Lott said yesterday that “he was going to move into the private sector after 35 years in Congress.” NBC News reported that Lott may join the “lucrative world of lobbying Congress.” He maintains the ethics restrictions “didn’t have a big role” in his resignation.
I’m not sure why Senator Lott has stepped down. He is clearly someone that progressives need to keep an eye on. Trent Lott is still a mover and a shaker. He has been in Congress a long time. He loves power. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is up to something in his home state of Mississippi. (psst. there is an ugly rumor that Lott’s gay affair may be the breaking story. I have no idea if this is true. All I know is there is a reason that he left suddenly.)
There is a GOP group called “The Hitmen” who have told him to resign, posthaste.
There will be more GOP resignations from both houses as RINOs and other shady characters with baggage are gotten rid of to clear the tables for ‘008.
Lott wasn’t the first, and he won’t be the last.