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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: coug who wrote (69711)	12/14/2002 9:28:49 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

I think that is the way it should be I wish everyone could learn that way forcing people to learn things they are not really interested in, is a tough way to educate people piquing works much better of course some people are tougher cases pique-wise and some people seem unpiquable

To: coug who wrote (69711)	12/15/2002 1:35:21 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Lott's deputy urges new election for majority leader Sunday, December 15, 2002 Posted: 12:33 PM EST (1733 GMT) Sen. Don Nickles, R-Oklahoma, said Sen. Trent Lott's remarks may have put his leadership ability in jeopardy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Trent Lott's controversial comments this month may have jeopardized his ability to advance the GOP agenda and Republicans should have an opportunity to choose a new leader, the Senate's No. 2 Republican said Sunday. In a statement posted on his Web site, Sen. Don Nickles, R-Oklahoma, said that he accepted Lott's apology for remarks apparently praising Sen. Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential campaign. But Nickles added that the issue "is bigger than any single senator now." "I am concerned that Sen. Lott has been weakened to the point that may jeopardize his ability to enact our agenda and speak to all Americans," the statement said. "There are several outstanding senators who are more than capable of effective leadership, and I hope we have an opportunity to choose." On December 5, at a 100th birthday party for Thurmond, the South Carolina Republican who is retiring from the Senate, Lott said the country would have been "a lot better off" if Thurmond had been elected president in 1948. As a Dixiecrat, Thurmond ran on a segregationist platform. Nickles' aides said the four-term senator telephoned the White House on Saturday night and Lott on Sunday morning to explain his reasoning. The aides did not disclose details of the conversations. Nickles is the first Republican senator to discuss openly the possibility of replacing Lott as the party's leader in the Senate. Nickles, the outgoing whip, and Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, have been mentioned as possible successors to Lott if he steps down. However, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky defended Lott on Sunday and urged the party to "accept this apology and move on." "Sen. Lott was elected to a two-year term, and he's said he's not going to resign, and in my view he shouldn't," McConnell told "Fox News Sunday." "We need to stay together and pursue the president's agenda." Rep. J.C. Watts, the outgoing Oklahoma representative who is the sole black Republican in Congress, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he was prepared to accept the apology and move on, but he added there was "no defense" for what Lott said. As for whether the Mississippian should remain at the helm of the Senate, Watts said only "that remains to be seen." McConnell warns against censure efforts Conservative leaders outside elected office have been much quicker to call for Lott to step aside. "I don't think he can, I don't think he will, and I don't think he should" remain as majority leader, William Bennett told CBS' "Face the Nation." Bennett, the education secretary and drug czar under President Reagan, said he does not think Lott is a racist but said the senator as a matter of "principle and politics ... should relinquish his post." McConnell, who will succeed Nickles as GOP whip in the new Congress, disagreed. Lott has faced criticism from both sides of the aisle after his controversial remarks. "None of us senators make the image of the Republican Party," McConnell said. "President George W. Bush does that, and he's been a very inclusive president." McConnell acknowledged the matter was "a crisis," but he insisted the party's goal should be to focus on Bush's agenda and not on the "big mistake" of the Senate GOP leader. "If we descend into a lot of internal bickering, I don't see how we can advance the president's agenda, and to me that's the most important thing we can be doing," he said. McConnell shot down the idea of censure -- which several leaders, including those in the Congressional Black Caucus, have called for -- threatening that the GOP would dredge up remarks by Democrats for censure if that happens. Some of those comments, McConnell said, "are much worse than what Sen. Lott said." "I just don't think that's a constructive use of the time of the Senate," McConnell said. "If we're going to get into the business of censuring members for racially sensitive comments, it's not going to be limited to Sen. Lott." Lott has apologized several times for his remarks, most recently Friday to reporters in his hometown of Pascagoula, Mississippi. At the time, he said he would not resign his leadership post "for an accusation that I'm something I'm not." Lott will address a largely black audience Monday night on the Black Entertainment Television cable network to expand on his explanation for his remarks. (Full story)