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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PROLIFE who wrote (329838)	12/17/2002 11:25:34 AM
From: CYBERKEN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Lott has 4 years left in his term. His well-known ambition has been to be governor of Mississippi. The Republicans have some leverage with him even if he decides to cap his failure of a Senate career by sulking off to his home state if he loses the leadership vote. Why? The current controversy about his comments is not a national one, and is ESPECIALLY not a Mississippi one. It is a "scandal" that lives entirely in the Beltway, and in the media that is obsessed with the Beltway. The Republicans can-virtually-deliver the Mississippi governorship to him in 2004 (providing he doesn't screw up THAT campaign. This man-after all-needs a full-time keeper), and, in exchange, he gives them the two more years in the Senate, which is all THEY need from him. If he sticks to his previously-stated intention of leaving the Senate if they take away his position, he will most likely get the 26 votes he needs to keep his leadership (It's THAT simple: NEITHER party would give up the Senate over one of these phony Beltway shit-throwing contests. The Republicans will, instead, take whatever heat comes.), UNLESS his opponent, Don Nickles, can deliver a least one more Republican to make up for the loss of Lott. Zell Miller and Ben Campbell have already been alienated by the ever-more left wing stance of the declining Democrats. One or both may be enticed to pull a "Jeffords", by either switching parties, or becoming "independent" and participating in the Republican caucus. These are only some of the elements that are in play. And the ultimate outcomes will have to be clearer before the Republicans vote-which is why they decided to vote January 6 instead of tomorrow...