Trent Lott just stepped down as Republican leader of the Senate

[Mike Irwin]

Lott steps down

[BigG]

Let him sit quietly in the back and vote pro gun all the way.

[trapshooter]

Not a bad thing, I guess. The lefties were never going to drop this. Now we'll see what they can dig up on the next Maj. Ldr.
What a farce!

[Lance]

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the incoming House Minority Leader, on Friday expressed her satisfaction that Trent Lott won't lead Senate Republicans, but she also indicated that Democrats aren't done branding Republicans as racists.
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They still arn't going to drop it, they arn't going to go away, they arn't going to quit.
They are like the Viet Cong.... The Varmint Cong

Lance

[RKCheung]

Not a bad thing, I guess. The lefties were never going to drop this. Now we'll see what they can dig up on the next Maj. Ldr.

From what I've seen, the Republicans have been doing much if not most of the calls for stepping down.

[DAVID NANCARROW]

Well, I for one hate to see the man go, although I can see why after watching the BET interview. I think he would have apologized for the Kennedy assassinations-both of them, if he had been asked about them. I didn't think he was at all prepared for the interview at all and wondered why he showed up in the first place. I don't know that the man is a racist and have seen nothing to indicate he has been one in the last 10 years.
Be that as it may, I sure would like to see someone like Orrin Hatch or someone like him get the leadership position because I think the conservatives are going to need someone with a backbone and a tough hide. Senator Hatch being mormon would probably start a bunch of capital hill garbalogy, but the time is coming fast when all the hot air isn't going to mean a thing-its time to act like an American for a change!

[2dogs]

Trent Lott appears to be stupid.

Trent Lott appears to be spineless.

Trent Lott was right to step down.

IMHO.

Not that I have anything against him, but if he was imbecilic enough to stick his foot so far in his mouth, and wimpy enough to beg and slaver for forgiveness the way he did, should he be a leader?

[Shalako]

I think it is telling that the highest priority for our politicians, our nation, and Nancy Pelosi and her ilk is a violation of the PC code. Is that what America is coming to? Forget about being the leader of the free world. All things just grind to a halt because someone wasn't freaking PC. Holy crap.

We need to stuff these Democrats back into the minivan, tell them to stick their thumb back in their mouth and shut the hell up!!

whew, excuse me, a lil vent there.

Thanks,
Shalako

[Mike Irwin]

I think, then, that Nancy Pelosi had best look to the mote in her own party, as it were.

Robert Byrd, the man with the Ku Klux Klan background, still likes to use the "N" word occasionally, and even pretty recently.

The ENTIRE Pennsylvania House of Representatives adopted a resolution condemning Byrd's use of the word.

Yet that disappeared off the radar in about what, 1 day, after 1 apology?

Scumbag bastard hypocrites.


Quite frankly, though, I'm NOT unhappy to see him out as leader of the majority/minority. He was too damned passive.

[DAVID NANCARROW]

One thing is for certain-if this is all the dems have to complain about, we have no opposition to speak of. Especially if we get someone into the leadership who will simply ignore their whining and get down to the job instead.

[AndABeer]

Not sorry to see him go as Leader but am glad he has enough character not to resign the Senate. I wasn't looking forward to a 50-49-1 margin.

The report I read had Frist as a frontrunner as a replacement. He is from my state but I believe NRA rates his voting record as "D" as in DemocRat. I may be mistaken on that so please someone correct me if I am.

[markm]

since trent lott is no longer m-leader we do not have to worry about him giving away the senate to all that ask for it.
now that will come from the president himself.out of fear of looking like a racist he will compromise to save face.if the repubs
had stood up to start with no one would have to compromise.
every time the minorities ask for something and they are told no can't afford it the first thing out of their mouth is your a racist.
they have always got what they wanted at the expense of others
which made them like spoiled children.only time will tell.

also why would anyone expect someone to sit in the back and
vote pro gun on their behalf after they wanted him to step down.

[2dogs]

Rick Santorum from PA is also apparently a contender, I believe he has a GOA rating of "C" so maybe a somewhat better choice than Frist?

[jimpeel]

As usual the Republicans quietly fed the lions -- while keeping both hands firmly clamped over their asses -- hoping they will be eaten last.

Republicans are the most gutless group of humans ever to occupy the Congress of these United States. Lott, following the CYA tactic of all Republicans who came before him bought into the Democrat's vilification of him; and he immediately started defending himself by attempting to prove a negative. He allowed the debate to be led by his detractors and immediately started apologizing for whatever it was they imagined he said.

In fact, if Thurmond had been elected, he may have appointed the USSC judges who may have been the deciding vote on several cases which have plagued this nation "for all these years".

We might still have prayer in the schools, ala the "found" unabgiguous wall of separation by an activist court, instead of kids slaughtering their classmates.

We might not have legalized abortion, ala the "found" right to "privacy" by an activist court.

We might not have had the failed experiment of the "Great Society" which squandered five trillion dollars of American productivity; and has been cited in study after study as the primary factor in the destruction of the Black family in America.

Lott stated none of this. He thereby, defending against the negative, gave credibility to his detractors that what they were saying he meant was what he actually meant.

Lott is a great example of the lack of political knowhow that pervades the Republican party. Instead of refusing to apologize for what he didn't say, he should have been insisting on what he did say. He instead took the low road, carefully following the signs posted by his detractors, and that road led him to today's decision.

Don't get me wrong. I have no love lost for Lott as I feel he is a compromiser who led himself to the crossroads of his own demise. What he gleaned from all of his compromising and "bipartisanship" -- a word that makes me want to vomit every time I hear it -- was the animus, vilification, vitriol, and disrespect of those he compromised with.

Will the Republicans learn anything from this? Not a whit, I have to presume.

This example of the Lott mess is likely the most convincing argument for term limits there is. We have these aging professional politicians who are from a different era where the times dictated the thinking; and they are being besmirched and vilified by the past. If Thurmond had been termed out long ago, Lott would never have been able to say the things that got him in trouble. In fact, Lott would have been termed out long ago as well. Unfortunately, term limits will never become a reality as the quest, for power trumps it soundly.

My message to all Republicans is simply this -- YOU'RE NEXT.

[jimpeel]

I wasn't looking forward to a 50-49-1 margin.

Did anyone out there catch the news programs all stating that Lott was threatening to resign, allowing the Democrat governor to appoint a Democrat, thus making the Senate 50-50? I guess Jeffords has become a Democrat after all.

[Jack T.]

I was hoping Senator Nickles, who is currently 2nd in the GOP, would throw his hat into the ring, but it looks like he probably won't. IIRC, he has a solid NRA A rating. . .

[2dogs]

"bipartisanship" -- a word that makes me want to vomit every time I hear it"

Very nicely put. Can we add "diversity" to the list?

It appears that the Republican definition of "bipartisanship" is more along the lines of "hit me again".

[Quartus]

someone like Orrin Hatch

Whoa! You'd better check his recent record! He is no longer a friend of ours!

[DAVID NANCARROW]

must have missed that one Cap'n. When did THAT happen?

[Blackhawk]

Lott's been on shaky ground with conservatives for years. Ann Coulter nailed it in her Dec 19 column. He should have resigned not for the one stupid thing he said that everybody got upset about, but for his tendency to say stupid things period.

He's an ex-Dem like Thurmond, and maybe he had a soft spot for new dems like Daschle and his ilk simply because of the Democrat party label. New dems are nothing like Truman, Kennedy or the founders of the party. They're socialist revolutionaries who think the end justifies the means. Chemo on the Constitution because they disagree with it, and stuff like that.

Lott ended up classy though. Resigning the leadership without getting in a snit and resigning his Senate seat was a good move.

What I'm interested in for a new Maj Leader is how he voted on convicting Clinton when he was impeached. If he voted to acquit, then he's lower than whale dung, IMO.

[BigG]

... violation of the PC code. Is that what America is coming to? ...

It's not coming to that, it's been that for at least since Nixon. Wesley Pruden of the Washington Times (a rare conservative newsrag) calls it the Great Democratic Baloney Slicing Machine. The dems complain about some specious "wrong," the reps trip all over themselves trying to meet them halfway (example show they're not racist in this case) and the dems demand half of the reps remaining half. It's an old tactic and the reps fall for it every time. Somebody ought to get a clue.

[Kaylee]

Well, I see at least Daschle wants to make sure we all "confront the Republican Party's record on race" or some such hooey. :barf:

I swear, this little witchhunt is almost enough to make me join the GOP myself.


-K

[Blackhawk]

I swear, this little witchhunt is almost enough to make me join the GOP myself.

[Quartus]

David, his most recent wretchedness can be found on UTGOA's site , but that is certainly not the only time he's supported anti-gun legislation in the last few years.

I'll try to dig up some more references.

[Quartus]

Well, that ws easy. Go here and just search on "Hatch" and you'll get a list of links to his "gun grabbing ways", as UTGOA puts it.

A good summary is here, in Sarah Thompson's article, Not Rational Anymore. Here's an excerpt:

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Most of you are probably familiar with Senator Hatch, and his abominable S. 254, the Juvenile InJustice Bill. Now that the NRA has done everything possible to give Hatch cover for his gun-grabbing ways, I expect the bill will explode out of the conference committee and land right in the middle of Clinton’s desk. Hatch’s own version of the bill (not including amendments by other anti-gun senators) includes the following:

Mandatory trigger locks with each sale
Mandatory registration of all gun show and pawn shop transactions
Mandatory registration of all firearms repairs
Mandatory 5 year prison sentence for parents whose children responsibly use certain semiautomatic firearms without written permission.
Increasing BATF funding by $40 million
Mandatory lifetime ban on firearms ownership for anyone who commits certain crimes as a juvenile

Hatch’s excuse is that these are "pro-gun" provisions that will "protect" gun owners. Apparently he believes that if this bill is passed, the anti-gun forces will simply go away.

Other notable accomplishments of Utah’s senior senator include:

Overseeing the Waco cover-up and declaring that the government had done nothing wrong
Voting against a prohibition on US troops serving in combat under UN command
Voting to confirm notoriously anti-gun Surgeon General, David Satcher, an advocate of fraudulent anti-gun "junk" science.
Voting to confirm liberal, activist judges including Richard Paez, Marsha Berzon, and Margaret Morrow
Refusing to allow the Freedom from Union Violence Act to emerge from the Senate Judiciary committee, thus endorsing violence as legitimate political activity.
Supporting the Chemical Weapons Treaty
Supporting taxpayer funding for the National Endowment for the Arts
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