Mississippi Senator Trent Lott has rebounded from his bout with foot-and-mouth disease that had led to a (partially weblog fanned) firestorm that ended in him being denounced by people from both parties and his exit from the Senator Majority Leader’s post. Now he’s back in the political saddle again.
Senate GOPers have elected Lott to be second-in-command to newly elected Republican Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. And there are several interesting things about this development:
- It shows that there IS life after seeming political death for someone who has a bout of political foot-in-mouth disease (an ailment that reached epidemic proportions during the 2006 mid-term election campaign by the way) and makes a racially insensitive remark.
- It shows someone can work their way back up from being a target of public outrage and scorn by being a blunt-spoken source for news media, even after a political debacle.
- It outlines a UNDENIABLE FACT: many Republicans probably longed for the days when Lott was Majority Leader after President George Bush and his associates essentially helped put Senator Bill Frist into that post. Frist proved to be the most ineffectual majority leader of perhaps the last half-century and one of least politically-astute to ever hold that post. If the Bush White House had just named a weather vane to replace Lott, it would have served the same purpose.
- Lott’s political resurfacing in a Senate leadership role is one more sign of Bush’s diminished clout. When Lott inserted his foot firmly into his mouth, the Bush White House was quick to move to dump him because, reports at the time suggested, Lott was not perceived as a total Bush team player. There will be fewer of those around in 2007 because some of the players were sent to the showers by voters and other team players may want to appear less so, just in case voters are ready to send more out of the game in 2008.
- Lott’s new position means the GOP will continue to have problems gaining a larger chunk of votes from African-Americans. The controversial ad run against defeated Tennessee Democrat Harold Ford in his campaign for Senate was denounced as racist and got widespread publicity and undermined party efforts to make inroads. More than ever, rightfully or wrongfully, this will be pointed to as evidence that the GOP is the party of the Southern strategy and more inclined in campaigns to play the “race card.”
The news story is clinical enough:
Sen. Trent Lott, ousted from the top Senate Republican leadership job four years ago because of remarks considered racially insensitive, won election to the No. 2 post Wednesday for the minority GOP in the next Congress.
Lott returned to the center of power by getting the position of vote-counting GOP whip, nosing out Sen. Lamar Alexander. Sen. Rick Santorum told reporters that Lott beat Alexander by a 25-24 vote.After an intense evening in which both men lobbied colleagues during floor votes, the Republican caucus elected Lott, a one-time whip and majority leader, by secret ballot. Lott will be the GOP’s second-in-command to Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who was elected unanimously to be the Senate minority leader in the new Congress.
With the midterm elections finished and Santorum, another candidate for the post, failing to win re-election, Lott cast himself as the more experienced candidate and the better choice for a job.
Once again: he can make that argument because Frist was such a poor choice as Majority Leader. GOPers can rightly argue that if Lott had been replaced by a more politically-smart Senator the GOP could have held onto the Senate. Frist was a walking textbook of how a majority leader should not work and what kind of image he should not have. Political scientists will not be kind when they write about his tenure.
Above all, Lott was always good at doing his homework and having his votes lined up. Another contrast with Frist.
So this will likely help the GOP’s operations in the Senate, return to high media profile someone who is an excellent interview source because he gives good, lively concise quotes (and has good hair).
But due to the controversy that shoved him off his Majority Leader’s seat, it isn’t going to be the best face on the GOP if it wants to offset lingering damage from the over-the-line Harold Ford ad among black voters.
UPDATE: Conservative blogger Ed Morrissey endorsed Alexander and in a post that should be read IN FULL had some blunt words about Lott and the GOP’s inclination to resurrect him:
Opposing Alexander is none other than Trent Lott from Mississippi. Lott had been Majority Leader until an unfortunate remark at Strom Thurmond’s birthday party caused a political firestorm. That’s not the problem with his candidacy for Whip; he’s been punished for his carelessness in hailing Thurmond’s Dixiecrat presidential run. My opposition comes from Lott’s attitude towards pork, and especially his attitude about the people who oppose pork spending….
….Republicans need to show that they have learned a lesson from their midterm drubbing. They lost their majorities because voters perceived that they had lost touch with the electorate on policy as well as attitude. We sent Republicans to clean up Congress, not to clean up for themselves in porkfests that rival anything that came before them. Trent Lott represents the worst of that class, and the mere idea that he remains in consideration for a leadership position after his commentary this year proves that the GOP hasn’t listened hard enough.
If the Senate Republicans want us to take them seriously, then they need to send Trent Lott to the back bench where he belongs. Any Republican Senator who supports Lott in leadership needs to have their head examined.
(Are there a lot of psychiatrists in the House?)
UPDATE II: Lott is not going over well with many Republicans. Just read Michelle Malkin.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.