Posted on 12/20/2002 6:19:45 PM PST by TLBSHOW
Commentary: Lott Throws In The Towel Gary Bauer President, American Values
After days of endless apologizing, Trent Lott has thrown in the towel and resigned as Senate Majority Leader. Late last night he began making phone calls to GOP colleagues to let them know his decision.
Also over night the White House began a more concerted push to replace Lott with Senator Bill Frist, who will now emerge as the "frontrunner."
Frist is a savvy media personality, but he angered many conservatives by interfering in Republican primaries around the country, virtually always in favor of the moderate candidate over the conservative. And he was a staunch supporter of former Surgeon General Satcher, who was pro-abortion. I hope a more reliable conservative-- either Nickles or Santorum-- will throw their hat in the ring.
Now comes the hard part. This mess doesn't end with Lott's resignation. The GOP needs to find its backbone. One example: There are reports that the Administration is now afraid to go into court against the University of Michigan's offensive racial quota system that selects students from certain minority groups regardless of grades while rejecting white students with much higher grades.
For 30 years the Republicans have opposed these quasi-quota schemes. Are we now going to throw in the towel because of the smear campaign against Republicans of the last two weeks?
Some insiders are suggesting there will be reluctance at the White House to nominate conservative judges. Such reports better be inaccurate or the conservative base of the party will be gone.
Let me bring up again one easy way for the White House to signal that it knows how to play hardball and help Americans of all races. Many Washington D.C. schools are abysmal and the children, mostly black, trapped in them are ill served. The White House should send a school voucher program to Capitol Hill on the first day of the new Congress just for the District of Columbia. Ted Kennedy will scream. Hillary Clinton will pull her hair out. Daschle will reach for the Maalox. And they will line up and vote "no" against those black families and in favor of the teacher unions.
Last year Bush dropped his voucher plan because Kennedy refused to let it out of Committee, but there should be no cave in this time.
There is a reason why the Democrats backed off on their attacks and didn't want Lott removed...
Excellent point. They realized they showed their hand too soon...when it was too late.
This will turn out to be a positive opportunity for the GOP.
Bill Frist is rated with a "D" on upholding the Creator endowed rights affirmed in the Second Amendment to the Constitution by Gun Owners of America (GOA)
Bill Frist is a "conservative"???
We have a far less conservative GOP Senate today than we had in January 2001. Gone are Phil Gramm, Jesse Helms and Bob Smith.
Dubya about had to come down hard on Lott in public.
Lott wasn't saying much, the whole incident and what he meant exactly was ambiguous. Everyone was uncertain and it was only a matter of time before someone put Dubya on the spot about it anyway.
I get the impression he came down hard on him in private also, and that's kind of troubling. (At the urging of Rove, perhaps?)
I think you're right about the cowardly, "Canonized Conservatives" though.
I couldn't believe my eyes when the nicest, most compassionate, understanding & all around most decent comment I heard about his mistake was from Tom Daschle.
I didn't care why Daschle said what he did, I was just amazed that he said it while the supposed "conservatives" were all readying Lott's noose.
Wrong. I merely pointed out that making broad-brush statements about how most "politically aware" Americans want the executive branch to file an amicus brief in the UofMich case, in the absence of any sort of statistically valid polling, is kinda sily.
Your opinion is that Americans aren't interested in where the Bush administration stands on affirmative action.
There are slightly more important things on the minds of most Americans I've run into recently. Affirmative action just ain't on the radar screen, unless you're talking about taking affirmative action against Saddam Hussein.
And your evidence for this statement is...?
(Cue Final Jeopardy theme)
What's really troubling is that Lott didn't take the hint and clean up his mess.
Depends on the level of political recovery the GOP makes between now and then. I don't think PresBush wants to feed the passions of racial strife and open old wounds.
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