Senate Source Threatens Vote of Confidence/No Confidence Unless Lott Racial Firestorm Stops

ABC News and the Los Angeles Times ^ | December 13, 2002 | Richard Simon and Janet Hook

[ewing]

Senator Charles Hagle (R-Nebraska) broached the prosepect that Lott's job is in jeopardy.

'Is this a big enough deal to cause a revolution in the Republican conference?I dont think so, but these things have a way of going further than expected.'

Increasingly this week Lott has been subjected to the drip-drip-drip of criticism and scrutiny that ofeten drives officials from power in Washington.

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) suggested Thursday that the GOP leader do more to diffuse the controversy, perhaps appearing at a news conference or other forum 'in which he just makes clear that he is wrong.'

snip A senior Senate aide says that Lott is trying to weather the political storm, hoping it will calm during the holidays.

'If it [the Lott racial controversy] doesn't die down, I think the Senate Republican caucus will be forced to give a vote of confidence/no confidence in him the aide exclusively told the Los Angeles Times in the Friday morning editions.

[ewing]

The Hagle quote and link to the LA Times is in the middle of the page.

One more shoe drops and I expect GOP Senators to begin calling for Lott to step down..

[TLBSHOW]

if they do the gop win of 2002 is finished

Action Alert from NOW 11/8/2002

Tell the Judiciary Committee NO on Judicial Nominees November 8, 2002

Action Needed:

The Judiciary Committee's plan to bring the nominations of Dennis Shedd and Michael McConnell to the floor for a vote must be derailed. There is NO reason why Sen. Leahy (D-Vt.), the current chair of the Committee, has to schedule this vote;

it is rumored that his reason is to give the outgoing Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) a gift on his 100th birthday as he departs the Senate at the end of this session. Sen. Thurmond has been Judge Shedd’s sponsor, mentor and former employer, having had him on his staff years ago.

http://www.capwiz.com/now/issues/alert/?alertid=889126&type=CU

[thinktwice]

One more shoe drops and I expect GOP Senators to begin calling for Lott to step down..

Two shoes here -- dropped against Loot.

Ooops -- That's Loot, not Lott.

[billbears]

I'm suprised really. It didn't take as long as I thought it would. Lott's second mistake was apologizing for a misconstrued statement. If he would have kept his mouth shut it would have eventually blown over

[Ben Hecks]

Wow! If Lott caused all this hyperventilating just by making a bad joke, just think what reaction had been if he had driven a car off a bridge while drunk and drowned a young, female campaign worker.

[CFC__VRWC]

Looks like the RINOs are already starting to reach out to their colleagues - the Rats.

[detective]

Can somebody explain to me why Senator Kennedy can kill his girlfriend and noone questions his fitness to serve in the Senate while Senator Lott makes an innapropriate comment at a birthday party, apologizes several times and yet he is expected to resign.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Saying he supported a Dixiecrat's presidential candidacy on AT LEAST two occassions, admitting his pro-segregation views in college (22-year-olds aren't just silly kids) and acting upon them, being the protege of a white supremacist congressman, and all the rest of his history on this topic isn't a joke.

Ask someone who grew up during Jim Crow how funny it was.

[TomGuy]

Brings to mind that adage about Republicans: They seem to always manage to pull defeat out of the jaws of victory.

[ewing]

He had got to do a press conferece, the sooner the better..

[ewing]

I've wondered that myself..

[dirtboy]

Can somebody explain to me why Senator Kennedy can kill his girlfriend and noone questions his fitness to serve in the Senate while Senator Lott makes an innapropriate comment at a birthday party, apologizes several times and yet he is expected to resign.

For the same reason that Clinton diddled an intern, perjured about it, used his office to obstruct the investigation, and managed to hold onto his office, whereas Bob Livingston resigned both the Speaker's position AND his House seat when his affair became public - because, if you stand for something better than what the Democrats offer, then you have to be willing to pay the price for that stand if the situation merits it.

[ewing]

Trent Lott doesn't seem to understand that the GOP standards for scandal are not the same as the Dims.

[Bogie]

Drip drip- bull sh*t! Lot manipulated the Senate to give Clinton a pass. Lott is a crook.

The fact that he is a racist makes it funny!

[BuddhaBoy]

because, if you stand for something better than what the Democrats offer, then you have to be willing to pay the price for that stand if the situation merits it.

Exactly right.

[brbethke]

Stay focused on the game, people. This isn't about Trent Lott, it's about which party controls the U.S. Senate when it reconvenes in January. Right now the split is 51-49; if the Democrats can force Lott to resign as majority leader, and do it in a way so humiliating that he resigns his Senate seat as well, then Lott's replacement will be appointed by Ron Musgrave, the 4-term Democrat governor of Mississippi.

And if you believe Musgrave will appoint a Republican to fill Lott's seat, I've got some DNR-protected wetlands I'd like to sell you.

The sudden appearance of stories about Lott's racist activities as a college frat boy has as much credibility as the sudden appearance of Linda Tripp's shoplifting arrest record. This whole sorry mess is a political hit job, pure and simple, and the fingerprints of Terry McAuliffe, James Carville, and Hillary Clinton are all over this one.

[cynicom]

Look here on FR, at the baying of the dogs looking for the Lott carcass. Their blood thirst wil not be slaked.

Most everyone would agree that Lott has always been a spineless weenie at the very best. However, after all the effort put in to regain control the senate, Bush and others are willing to shoot one of their own wounded comrades.

Were Lott a democrat, there would nothing from his friends.

[No Truce With Kings]

"Wow! If Lott caused all this hyperventilating just by making a bad joke, just think what reaction had been if he had driven a car off a bridge while drunk and drowned a young, female campaign worker."

I hope you are not advocating that Republicans hold their elected officials to the same low standards to which Democrats hold theirs. One reason that the Republicans offer an alternative to the Democrats is that unlike the Democrats, when a Republican steps in it the Republican goes. Is the party stronger or weaker without Bob , Livingston, or Gingrich? Are the Democrats stronger or weaker with Clinton, Kennedy, and Byrd?

If the Dems want drunken wastrels as Senators, that is their lookout. That is not an excuse to keep an ineffective fumblemouth as Majority Leader. In fact, tolerating an ineffective fumblemouth as Majority Leader is one factor that allows the Democrats to survive as viable party despite having drunken wastrels Senators.

[detective]

There is no consistant standard of behavior and this is wrong.

[ewing]

I am still waiting for the press to pick up on the Capitol Hill Blue.com report from a few days ago where Lott joked on the Senate floor [overheard by a sourced staffer in the article] with other Sentors behind closed doors that he was complaining that the 'N*ggers are taking over pro sports..'

And the aide says that wasn't the first time Lott was dropping N-bombs in sharing humor with colleagues.