Don Nickles Calls for New Senate Leadership Election to Challenge Lott

Fox News | 12-15-02

[rightwing2]

Fox News just reported that ABC reported that Nickles has called for a new Senate leadership challenge to Trent Lott!

[BuddhaBoy]

Lott is NOT going to leave the Senate. He will not have as his legacy handing the Senate to the Democrats. He will step down, sit down and shut up.

Winner: Conservatives.

Thank you Democrats, for doing what Republicans didn’t have the guts to do. We will now have a Conservative-led Senate.

[dogbyte12]

Lott is looking pathetic. You know, sometimes you just have to take your lumps.

As I mentioned on another thread, Lott's excuse for only passing out written statements, and doing the over the phone interviews was that he was too busy vacationing in Boca Raton, which doesn't have a tv station with a satellite uplink.

Lott so misjudged his need to be on air, contrite, out forward, that he was unwilling to drive 45 miles to Miami, to be able to address this issue. That is the distance to a tv station with satellite uplinks. His vacation was more important.

Hubris is what is going to get him.

[Petronski]

"Is that really how you want to be remembered, as the man who did the most to harm the Republican party since Richard Nixon?"

In that scenario, Nixon would be the classier man, as he ultimately did what was BEST for his PARTY.

[Mollygal]

Apparently the Lott office is watching the Sunday TV firestorm - lol - where was Lott last week, why didn't he come out immediately and apologize..the ship has left the dock, Lott is a huge liability for the Republican party, better to lose the senate than to have him on board.

If Bush wanna play hardball and push Lott off the cliff, he can have Colin Powell, Condi Rice coming up on TV shows on unrelated topics like Iraq, and yet making statemnets on how Lott doesn't have their confidence in the congress or something like it will be difficult to work with him blah blah...

Powell and condi are the major trump cards Bush has in this matter...sorta like the Nuclear devices from Genreal Rove...lol..

[steve50]

Lott would need a good lobbist/think tank job if he left. If he gives control to the Dems he won't be able to get a meeting with a republican WH janitor let alone a politican, and everytime he opens his mouth we see he's of no use to a "think tank". Call this bozos bluff.

[cyncooper]

Ping-o-rama

[PGalt]

Interesting. The appeaser has more important things to do, such as the token dupe at Democratic funerallies. The squirrel-like SML has become road kill on the cul-de-sac dirt road of Democrats.

[BuddhaBoy]

In an indication of White House wariness about getting squarely behind Lott, sources said Lott sought statements of support last week from national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell but was rebuffed. Both are African American. Some White House officials said it was clumsy of Lott to ask.

Yes, lots of people on a sinking ship think that others would be ever so happy to jump on with them. Condi and Colin are no fools. They know Lott’s time is up.

[grania]

And if Lott retires and McCain switches to Independant than what ? Than we have two more years of Dashle. Brilliant move neo-cons.

Add to that the possibility of a more conservative Republican leadership making things difficult for Republican Senators with liberal constituencies. Will the left keep nibbling? Or will a more conservative and effective Senator Majority Leader get some of the conservative social agenda through? Or will this all be an excuse for gridlock, so those in power can say "don't blame me" if anything, foreign or domestic, explodes (literally or figuratively).

This drama is better than West Wing, the TV show. Methinks that maybe GWB and his team really wanted a hand-picked majority leader all along, and weren't unhappy to see this Lott thing blown out of proportion.

[AmericaUnited]

Lott is a huge liability for the Republican party, better to lose the senate than to have him on board.

ABSOLUTELY WRONG!

[John Lenin]

Hey, it's a matter of principle, better to be the minority party than have a guy like Lott in there, right ?

[nonliberal]

Go Don!!

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Nickles did the right thing. Neither the right likes Lott, nor the Jesse Jackson crowd. One thing though, we need to rub in the rat hypocracy as deeply as possible.

[kcvl]

And when the conservatives of the South have had enough Bush is toast. Pandering to racist RATS and not standing up for the people who actually VOTED for Bush will not work any longer either.

If this causes Republicans to lose another Senate seat I hope you all are happy that Hillary Clinton just won another step in her ladder to the White House.

[rightwing2]

Here's the full article from Fox News

Sen. Nickles Calls for New Majority Leader Election Sunday, December 15, 2002

WASHINGTON — The Senate's No. 2 Republican leader called Sunday for a new election for the majority leader's job that Sen. Trent Lott is set to hold in the new Congress. Sen. Don Nickles, Lott's deputy for six years as the GOP whip, urged other Republican senators to consider picking a new leader because of the controversy about Lott's comments at a birthday party for South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond. Nickles, who had kept silent on Lott's remarks that conveyed nostalgia for the policies of racial segregation, said he accepts Lott's multiple apologies over the last week. "I am concerned that Senator Lott has been weakened to the point that may jeopardize his ability to enact our agenda and speak to all Americans," Nickles told ABC's "This Week." "There are several outstanding senators who are more than capable of effective leadership, and I hope we have an opportunity to choose."

He added: "Can he be effective? Can he campaign in places like Chicago? I don't want to squander our ability to get things done. We only have a short window this year." Nickles has served the maximum six years as No. 2 Senate GOP leader and is in line to be the Budget Committee chairman in the new Congress that convenes in January. Nickles' successor as whip, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Lott has apologized several times and should be allowed to serve the term to which GOP senators voted him after the party's gain in midterm elections in November. "Senator Lott knows that he's weakened," said McConnell. "He knows he made a bad mistake. But he's apologized, as I said, on four different occasions. I think we ought to accept the apology and move on." Lott, R-Miss., triggered an uproar this month when he made comments at a 100th birthday party for the retiring Thurmond.

Under pressure from Democrats and Republicans alike, Lott has offered a series of increasingly expansive apologies for his remarks. McConnell acknowledged he's concerned about the effects on Republican efforts to expand their appeal among minorities and their agenda on civil rights. "We're all concerned about it. And Senator Lott is concerned about it," McConnell said. "And he is working very hard to regain the confidence of the African-American community."

In October, Nickles had told Lott he would not challenge him for the job in the next Congress, apparently after realizing he would probably lack the votes to topple Lott. There long have been rumblings that Nickles, spearheading some of the more conservative Republican senators, might someday mount a challenge to Lott. Lawmakers have described the two men as having a cool relationship, and Lott has sometimes been seen by conservatives as too willing to cut deals with Democrats.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

maybe as a complicated strategy, we should nominate Sen. Byrd and see what kind of votes he gets.

LOL!

Since this is a time for change, perhaps the 'conscience of the senate' should replace Timber Tom?

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

We need to roast the rats' chestnuts regarding racism.

[John Lenin]

I hope Lott retires, McCain switches to independant and the RATS shove the Pelosi agenda down our throats. This is why I left the GOP before, because it's the party of self sabotage.

[chiller]

I think its a bluff, too. If he stood firmly, it would
be the first time.

It scares the crap out of me, though. Senate Majority
is paramount...nothing else comes close, imho.

[For the Unborn]

Is this really a good move if Trent Lott threatened to quit the senate if someone tried to challenge him?