The last Dixiecrat(?) calls it quits
Nov. 26th, 2007 09:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thatcrazycajunCNN and other outlets are reporting this morning that former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) will announce later today his plans to resign his Senate seat by year's end. Lott is best known these days for having made the humongous political mistake of publicly voicing, five years ago, his belief that the country would be better off today had his late Senate colleague Strom Thurmond (R-SC) succeeded in his abortive run for President on the "Dixiecrat" ticket back in 1948. The remark ultimately cost Lott his leadership post and arguably contributed to his party losing control of Congress last year, although he still managed to get re-elected one more time despite his attack of oral diarrhea...or maybe because of it (see below).
Anonymous sourcing claims that no scandal, known or yet to break, is behind the Magnolia State Republican's decision, but rather than Lott wants to join the private sector and feels he's "laid the groundwork to ensure that Mississippi is taken care of." (Had this been scandal-driven, the usual "want to devote more time to my family" excuse likely would have been trotted out again.) It surely can't be for lack of home-state support; Lott's run for the 2006 nomination for Senate was unopposed, and he beat the sole Democratic survivor of the primary election with 64% of the vote in an election year now famous for its nationwide wave of Democrats sweeping Repubs out of office and of the majority—a wave just as famously broken, or almost so, in several Southern states, including the one where I was born (LA) and the one where I now live (GA). (Of course, the fact that Mississippi was one of the states hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina's devastation in 2005 might have been a factor.)
Whatever his reasons, it can only bode well for the Dems' prospects to strengthen their razor-thin Senate majority next year; so far, no other candidate has been floated to my knowledge who could match Lott's popularity or money among that state's GOP boldface names. (Current governor Haley Barbour would probably win in a walk should he choose to run, having held his state together after Katrina far better than his luckless Dem colleague Kathleen Blanco did her state next door.) Good effing riddance, I say; so long, Trent old son, and don't let the doorknob hit you where the good Lord split you.
UPDATE, 12:00 noon: A Daily Kos blogger points out here what may be a key motivation for Trent's sudden retirement: "A Lott friend said part of the reason, and a factor in the timing, is a new lobbying regulation, signed by President Bush in September, extending the existing lobbying ban for former members of Congress from one to two years. The lobbying ban takes effect at the beginning of the year." Which makes it all the more understandable why ol' Trent wants to get out while the gettin' is good.
Anonymous sourcing claims that no scandal, known or yet to break, is behind the Magnolia State Republican's decision, but rather than Lott wants to join the private sector and feels he's "laid the groundwork to ensure that Mississippi is taken care of." (Had this been scandal-driven, the usual "want to devote more time to my family" excuse likely would have been trotted out again.) It surely can't be for lack of home-state support; Lott's run for the 2006 nomination for Senate was unopposed, and he beat the sole Democratic survivor of the primary election with 64% of the vote in an election year now famous for its nationwide wave of Democrats sweeping Repubs out of office and of the majority—a wave just as famously broken, or almost so, in several Southern states, including the one where I was born (LA) and the one where I now live (GA). (Of course, the fact that Mississippi was one of the states hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina's devastation in 2005 might have been a factor.)
Whatever his reasons, it can only bode well for the Dems' prospects to strengthen their razor-thin Senate majority next year; so far, no other candidate has been floated to my knowledge who could match Lott's popularity or money among that state's GOP boldface names. (Current governor Haley Barbour would probably win in a walk should he choose to run, having held his state together after Katrina far better than his luckless Dem colleague Kathleen Blanco did her state next door.) Good effing riddance, I say; so long, Trent old son, and don't let the doorknob hit you where the good Lord split you.
UPDATE, 12:00 noon: A Daily Kos blogger points out here what may be a key motivation for Trent's sudden retirement: "A Lott friend said part of the reason, and a factor in the timing, is a new lobbying regulation, signed by President Bush in September, extending the existing lobbying ban for former members of Congress from one to two years. The lobbying ban takes effect at the beginning of the year." Which makes it all the more understandable why ol' Trent wants to get out while the gettin' is good.
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Southern Friendship
Date: 2007-11-26 03:31 pm (UTC)despite anything they may have done, a favorite son is still a favorite son.
If it wasn't responsible for keeping so many ass hole in office, I might actually approve.