Lott's Future Bleaker by the Day
URL: foxnews.com
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
WASHINGTON — Despite Trent Lott's latest 30-minute apology on Black Entertainment Television, more and more Republicans say the scandal-tainted senator must give up his leadership post -- and the sooner, the better -- before the GOP takes over the majority next month.
After meeting with President Bush, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said he would have no public comment, but Fox News has learned that Hastert has told colleagues he does not expect Lott to be Senate leader next year.
The Bush administration has decided that it will publicly stay out of the debate over whether Lott should be forced out of his Senate majority leader post for implying that the country would have been better off had Sen. Strom Thurmond been elected president in 1948. Thurmond, R-S.C., then a Dixiecrat, ran on a segregationist platform.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer repeated that the president "does not think Sen. Lott needs to resign," but added that Bush will not discuss the Republican conference's decision to hold a caucus to discuss Lott's future in the party.
"Senators have indicated that they are calling for meeting on Jan. 6. And the White House will not comment on that meeting or anything leading up to that meeting vis-a-vis anything these senators may or may not do or call for at a potential meeting," Fleischer said.
Privately, however, a senior administration official bluntly told Fox News that Lott is jeopardizing the party future and must go.
The official even offered to call Lott on Monday to tell him it is time to go, but the administration decided against it.
White House legislative affairs director Nick Calio, who announced his departure for the private sector on Tuesday, was tight-lipped about how the president might view a Lott departure and would not speculate on whether Lott would hang on to power.
"I'm not going to get into characterizing how the president would feel," he said. "I'm going to avoid comment on that if I may, we'll let things play out and see what happens."
Political analysts agree that Lott's careless remark may hurt the administration.
"It goes against (senior Bush adviser) Karl Rove's strategy, trying to reach out to minorities," said James Thurber, a political scientist at American University. Thurber said he believes Lott will not survive the tempest.
Former Senate GOP leaders Bob Dole and Howard Baker have separately let it be known that they think Lott must step down for the good of the party.
Dole told Fox News' Hannity and Colmes in an interview scheduled for Tuesday night that Lott must go, and referred to Lott's leadership job in the past tense.
"It's way out of control. You can't get the genie back in the bottle. I think Sen. Lott did a good job as majority leader," Dole said.
And others say Lott has already betrayed his own policy beliefs in order to get back into good graces with black voters. During his BET interview on Monday night, Lott seemed to do a back flip, saying he supports affirmative action.
"I am for that ... absolutely across the board," Lott said.
"Last night he was taking about being in support of every affirmative action program known to man. I mean next week he'll be in support of reparations and the candidacy of Al Sharpton," said conservative culture guru Bill Bennett.
Senators have already started calling Lott's deputy, Sen. Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, to pressure him to tell Lott it is time to step aside. McConnell has been a key defender of Lott.
Conference chairman and Lott loyalist Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, has been peppered with Lott unrest.
"Everybody's getting closer to realizing they can't help Lott anymore and they have to worry about their own reputations. It doesn't matter what the facts are anymore, it's gone beyond that. This is about the country, the senate and the party (whether it is) fair to Lott or not," said a senior GOP source on Capitol Hill.
In a conference call on Tuesday, Santorum said he still believes Lott will be majority leader in January and doesn't think reports are true that the president wants him out.
Asked if he believes Lott will decide to step down, Santorum said no, nor has he focused his attention on whether Lott's stepping down before the Jan. 6 meeting would helpful.
Should Lott step down, four contenders, McConnell, Santorum, Bill Frist of Tennessee and Don Nickles of Oklahoma, are being looked at as possible replacements.
Nickles, 54, may have taken himself out of contention since he was the first senator to pull the trigger on Lott, saying on a television news show last Sunday that new elections should be held among the GOP conference.
Santorum, 44, serves as the No. 3 in the GOP conference. He is socially conservative, and has been at the forefront in the push to get government funding of faith-based services.
McConnell, 60, and husband to Bush labor Secretary Elaine Chao, headed the National Republican Senatorial Committee for four years and demonstrated an ample fund-raising ability. The primary plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging campaign finance reform legislation, he was elected to succeed Nickles as GOP whip.
Frist, 50, a heart-lung transplant surgeon and favorite of the Bush White House, has said that he doesn't want the job after serving as the most recent GOP Senatorial Committee chairman. But Frist may be pushed into it, and in the job would be a strong voice in pushing the health care overhaul that Bush has said he wants to make a priority in the next Congress.
Lott and Santorum initiated the conference idea hoping to string out the battle over the holidays, in the belief that senators would "get perspective with their families, calm down" and realize Lott was being railroaded, a senior GOP official said.
But the idea backfired on Lott, whom many say can not survive the momentum building against him.
A push is on to get Lott "to do the right thing" before Saturday so this does not extend through the holidays.
"Nobody wants to go through Christmas with this undecided," said the source.
And many Republicans realize now that they have put themselves in a situation where they cannot emerge from behind closed doors in January and say Lott is the best leader they have.
If Lott does lose the post, he has threatened to retire from the Senate, effectively ending his political career, but also leaving the majority in a precarious spot. Republicans won a 51-seat majority in November. If Lott drops out, Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat, will select a replacement for Lott, most likely a Democrat and possibly former Clinton official Rep. Mike Espy, an African-American.
Others names mentioned include state Atorney General Mike Moore, 50, the first state attorney general to sue the tobacco industry. He won a $3.3 billion settlement.
Former Gov. William Winter, 79, who served from 1980 to 1984 and was a member of President Clinton's Initiative on Race advisory board, and Rep. Ronnie Shows, 55, the outgoing two-term congressman, who lost to Republican Rep. Chip Pickering, son of Lott's friend Charles Pickering, whose confirmation to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals was defeated primarily on arguments that his rulings in race-based cases were biased.
Fears are also mounting that if the Senate returns to a 50-50 tie, Democrats may be able to persuade Rhode Island GOP Sen. Lincoln Chafee to convert, handing over the majority to Democrats.
Fox News' Carl Cameron and the Associated Press contributed to this report. |
