Recently Mississippi Republican Senator Trent Lott announced that after 35 years he is packing it in and retiring from the US Senate. The former head of the Senate and current Minority Whip leader was just reelected in 2006 and had a remaining five years of what would have been his fourth term.
Lott was revered by many in Senate as a deal maker and compromiser. While this may true in this current time where you have a deadlocked and bickering Congress this role is less relevant. To your author he was another great ‘could have been’.
Lott’s career was more about pork spending. In your author’s opinion he ranks only second to West Virginia Democrat Senator Robert Byrd, formerly of the KKK, in bringing home the bacon. In 2002 Lott was quoted in Republican Senator Tom Coburn’s book entitled Breach of Trust saying, "balancing a budget would be nice but I have to win an election".
While Majority Leader in the Senate, Lott celebrated the 100th birthday of South Carolina Strom Thurmond and said the following, "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years, either." Thurmond campaigned for the President’s seat in 1948 and at the time was an open segregationist. While Lott may have not intended his comments to be taken as he agreed with Thurmond’s social leanings, it was certainly perceived this way in the media and backlash resulted. It ultimately ended with Lott stepping down from his leadership position.
The reason Lott made such a statement has never been fully explained. His supporters claimed it was because Lott was a conservative and that when Thurmond campaigned, he was actually critical of Franklin Roosevelt’s expansion of the federal government. However Lott would be hard pressed to defend his first political relationship with that of Democrat Mississippi Congressman William Colmer. Lott served as his assistant on the House Rules Committee. Upon his retirement in 1972, Colmer endorsed Lott as his successor. Lott would change his party affiliation to Republican, which was indicative of the growing political trend in the South. Despite Colmer’s blessing Lott lost. Colmer himself had a bit of an infamous background as the once powerful congressman was able to convince fellow southern politicians to sign the Southern Manifesto, which was in response to the Democrat’s party embracing civil rights. The document was drawn up in 1956 and directly opposed the Supreme Court’s landmark decision of Brown vs. Board of Education.
While Lott rose in power in the Senate he campaigned on conservatism and much that has fallen under this cloak of political philosophy. While he may have known the word, his initiative or lack of it spoke otherwise.
Beginning with the Republican revolution in 1994, tort reform was on the mind of many business owners. Since the 1970s trial lawyers had been fleecing American enterprise with lawsuits. Lott could have jump-started legislation but failed. It may of had something to do with his brother in-law, the well known and rich Mississippi trial lawyer Richard ‘Dickie’ Scruggs, who will figure prominently at the conclusion of this entry. Scruggs makes former North Carolina Senator, ambulance chaser, failed 2004 Vice Presidential nominee and current Democrat Presidential pretty boy John Edwards look like a pauper.
Oddly enough Lott’s role as Majority Leader fell on Dr. Bill Frist, Republican from Tennessee, who attempted to begin tort law reform. Frist was pro active and for the two terms he served stood steadfast for reform. First and foremost Frist promised his supporters that they would get two terms out of him and he would retire. Imagine that, an elected official implementing his or her own term limits policy? Frist was quick to reprimand those of his own party as he was if they were Democrat. Lott was bitter about the election of Frist to his former spot, an act he referred to as a ‘personal betrayal’, stating in his autobiography Herding Cats, A Lifetime of Politics, "If Frist had not announced exactly when he did, as the fire was about to burn out, I would still be majority leader of the Senate today." Yes Senator Lott and the Republican party would be worse off.
In his autobiography Lott described former Democrat Senator Tom Daschle from North Dakota and then Senate Minority Leader as ‘trustworthy’. Frist actively campaigned in North Dakota for Republican John Thune and Daschle lost in 2004. The former senator has since thrown his support behind Senator Barrack Obama for the 2008 Presidential Election. Daschle has stated that Obama, "personifies the future of Democratic leadership in our country." Nowadays Daschle spends his time as policy advisor for the lobby group Alston & Byrd LLP and as a fellow for the Center of America Progress, which is a research group that counters conservative thought.
Lott would later blunder when failed to listen to his constituents and supported the disastrous 2007 Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act that was heralded by the likes of President Bush and Senator Ted Kennedy. Your author has previously warned that all one needs to know is that if Ted Kennedy supports a proposal, it is bad news.
So what has Lott achieved that is noteworthy besides surprising some of us and not becoming a career politician? Some on the Mississippi coast could argue that Lott managed to keep local military bases opened. This may be rosy for the folks in Biloxi and Pascagoula but for the rest of America it is a waste of federal funds. Military bases were never intended to create economies but were placed in location as a matter of convenience. Don’t misinterpret your author, he is in favor of a strong and well funded military (something Democrats oppose) but they need to be overseas where threats to our liberty exist. How many untold $100 millions were shelled out to this area, we will never know but Lott managed to prop this area up instead of imploring them to create another economic stimulus.
There have been three noted reasons why Lott may have suddenly retired. The first being that Lott may wish to cash out and join a lobbying firm. In order to do so he must stay out of politics for two years. This is a rather simple explanation.
However your author believes that at least one of two storms caused the senior Senator to retire. The first being of a political nature and involving the embattled Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska. The longest serving Republican in the Senate is in a quagmire for allegations of misappropriating federal funds to benefit his former aide Trevor McCabe. Another investigation, which has brought in the FBI, is centered around VECO Corporation oil company and their executive Bill Allen. The allegations are that Allen willfully bribed Stevens’ son Ben, who was a power in the Alaskan senate. Allen has already copped a plea and is slated to be a witness for the prosecution. Both Lott and former House Speaker, who retired several months back, were photographed with Allen at a fishing retreat.
The other firestorm is closer at home and involves Lott’s brother in law, famous trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs. Many will recall that it was Scruggs that led a massive lawsuit against State Farm following Hurricane Katrina. Lott, who owns a Gulf Coast home, joined in with the suit. Now Scruggs and others are under a federal indictment, which includes an interesting list of characters such as the current Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood. The indictment states that Scruggs attempted to bribe a judge that was hearing the suit. More recently the office of Scruggs’ defense attorney has been raided. What role did Lott play in these allegations that will most certainly prevent Missippians from future coverage? Your author does not know but his unexpected retirement can only make your author speculate.
The folks in Mississippi are better off without Senator Lott. Only time will tell if they decide to advanced forward by electing an effective representative or will they once again succumb to promises and deliveries of pork. Someone of a higher political rank within the Republican National Committee must have taken Lott out to the levy or the delta and told him it was over. This should have happened years ago. The Republicans are cleaning house slowly but surely and it is the first step in producing realistic hope that they will once again dominate the national political scene. Meanwhile the Democrats with an ineffective Congress and infighting among their ranks are fulfilling the second half of this equation.
