Could Lott Return to Senate Leadership?

By DHinMI

This is very interesting:

Work on Nominees Could Return Lott to Senate Leadership

For months, Sen. Trent Lott pulled a list of names from his pocket and told anyone who listened that he had the votes to trigger the "nuclear option" - the change in the Senate's rules that would ease the way for President Bush's judicial nominees.

At the same time, the Mississippi Republican worked quietly to avert it.

Lott wasn't among the 14 senators who signed the pact on Monday that forestalled a Senate showdown. Publicly, he was dismissive.

"Whenever that coalition needs to be picked apart," he said, "we'll pick it apart."

But senators involved in the talks say Lott was instrumental in pushing the Senate to the brink of a historic clash - and in pulling it back. It was a remarkable role for the former Senate leader whose career was nearly ruined by an ill-advised tribute to the late Sen. Strom Thurmond two-and-a-half years ago that made him sound nostalgic for the days of segregation.

In the end, by maneuvering behind the scenes, Lott displayed more flexibility than the man who replaced him at the helm of the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. - and he may have enhanced a political rehabilitation that could return him to the leadership ranks.

That piece from the Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau doesn't really live up to its headline, because it's unclear how Lott would regain the Senate Republican leader position from which he was ignominiously booted a few years ago.  While ostensibly because of his racist comments at Strom Thurmond's 147th birthday party, the real reason the right wing attacked Lott and precipitated his downfall was because they thought he was ineffective and too willing to compromise with Democrats, the same beef the wingers had with Bob Dole.  Obviously compromise is a hallmark of legislating, so it's kind of an unrealistic complaint, especially in the Senate where the threat of a filibuster and the institutional preference for passing bills with more than 70 votes impels Senate leaders to attain broad consensus including some partisans across the aisle.  But for the wingers, the ability to pass legislation is valued less than being politically pure, even if ineffective (like Bill Frist). 

Whether there's any realistic chance that Lott would prevail over the loathsome Mitch McConnell is immaterial, however, to the pleasure one should get from reading that article.  What's important is that Lott may think he has the ability to become leader, and that Lott is apparently acting as if he's already in leadership.  As I argued the other day, after saving the filibuster, the most important thing to come from the Nuclear Option agreement is the likelihood of growing dissension and disarray in the Republican party and its electoral coalition.  If both McCain and Lott are undercutting Frist, that means that the White House and its toady have lost control of the Republican caucus. 

It will also help Democrats if Lott become a more public face of the Senate Republicans.  Lott had been making comments like those he made at Thurmond's birthday party for many years.  But not until the relentless pounding on the issue by Josh Marshall and Atrios led conservatives like the gang at NRO to jump on the bandwagon did Lott's racist flirtations attain widespread notice through the mainstream media.  As I mentioned, the racist comments were only a pretense for knocking him out of leadership, but the damage to his public image remains.  If he's increasingly seen as a Republican leader in the Senate, it will just reinforce the notion that Republicans have plenty of racist fellow-travelers in their ranks, and it causes them no consternation.  Besides, even if he wasn't a racist, Lott is still a crappy communicator with political tone-deafness.  After all, it was Lott who, way back in 2003, coined the term "Nuclear Option" to describe getting rid of the filibuster.  That term has helped the Democrats convince people that eliminating the filibuster is an extreme action by an extremist political party.

There's little bad and plenty of good that could come from Trent Lott making another run at influencing the direction of the Senate Republican caucus.  It would hurt the credibility and unity of the Republican party...so lets all wish him the best of luck.

Comments

[DHinMI]

Thanks to praktike for the link.

[Kagro X]

The original speculation I saw on this had McConnell taking a turn at the helm, and Lott taking over as Whip.

Just as well, for them. McConnell's not that good at counting votes, apparently. Or at least, not that good at marshalling them, even if counted correctly.

[praktike]

Either that, Kagro, or McConnell and Lott are in cahoots with McCain to overthrow Frist. Lott just couldn't resist bragging about it, though ...

[DHinMI]

OK,that shows Republican principles regarding racism at work. If you're a racist, you have to step down from the number one position for a couple years, but then after you've served your time on parole, you can come back as number 2.

Yeah, party of Lincoln, yada yada yada...

[DemFromCT]

For all the doom and gloom about the Dems, it's Frist that got rolled. The WH was not only mad at him for screwing up, it was mad at him for not pretending he won even if he lost.

Then came Bolton... screwed up again.

Now comes stem cells... and Frist won't be able to stop Bush from an embarrassing veto.

Too bad, huh?

[emptywheel]

Is it possible that a number of Senators have made it clear to Fristie that he can't obey the White House, particulalry on Bolton? (The Gang of 14 would offer an easy forum to do this.) Because if it is (and I could see why GOP Senators would want to start asserting their co-equalness), I could imagine Frist freezing, not knowing what to do. I could either see the older and "wiser" (in the ways of the Senate at least) men around either offering to help him explicitly or recognizing a deer in the headlights when they saw it and catering to Frist's obviously untenable position.

That is, if you had a "solution" for Frist that would offer a way out of the traps he had set for himself, I could see Frist being relatively maleable. You provide him a way to save face, and he's going to listen fairly readily to your parliamentary suggestions because, frankly, he doesn't have any better solutions himself.

What would this look like? For example, is McCain's call on the WH to release the requested Bolton information part of such a "solution"?

[DHinMI]

is McCain's call on the WH to release the requested Bolton information part of such a "solution"?

Maybe, but one guaranteed to make both Frist and the White House look bad, because the WH will look intransigent when they refuse to release this information, and Frist will look impotent when he's unable to force their hand.

Probably a good situation for McCain, but really bad for Bush and Frist.

I'm going to pop some popcorn and rest my feet on the ottoman while I watch this game play out.

[praktike]

Has Frist set up an exploratory committee for '08 yet? Because Rove still controls most of the fundraising networks in the GOP, and he can make or break Frist. McCain has his own, separate base of power, so he can afford to tell the WH to piss off. Frist, like emptywheel says, is screwed.

[emptywheel]

But if you're Frist and you've been told by a group of moderates your majority leadership depends on preventing the Bolton nomination from actually coming up for a vote, would you trade the bad pub in order to retain the position you believe is critical to your presidential bid?

Oh. And pass the popcorn, please.

[al-Fubar]

The mere fact that this article surfaces reinforces the theme of "Senate GOP in disarray," a big positive even if nothing more comes of it.

In fact, Senate Republicans are in something of a box, for just that reason. Any leadership reshuffle will highlight the disarray theme, and the long knives will be out.

-- Rick Robinson

[DHinMI]

Yeah, you guys are right, Frist is screwed. I suspect he knows it too.

But then again, a doctor who's a US senator and thinks he can become President does have a pretty big god complex, so who knows.

But we know he's screwed, McCain knows it, Hagel knows it, Lott knows it, and Rove knows it.

So, does keeping Frist as Senate Leader play to any of the Repubs' advantage in the 2008 jockeying?

[praktike]

"But if you're Frist and you've been told by a group of moderates your majority leadership depends on preventing the Bolton nomination from actually coming up for a vote, would you trade the bad pub in order to retain the position you believe is critical to your presidential bid?"

If I'm Frist ... you know what I would do? I would quit very publicly RIGHT NOW and turn myself into a political martyr for the religious right, and then start to assert control over them so that I become my own man. But I don't think he'll do that.

BTW, I saw your comments at TWN about a possible Reid-Frist collusion, but I'm not sure I buy that. I think Frist just sucks at counting, and Reid may have suckered him.

[DHinMI]

I think Reid and some members of his own caucus suckered him. Whether it was two independent sucker-punches or a coordinated effort, I don't know. But I agree with you that Frist is incompetent.

[praktike]

The one thing we haven't talked about much here is BRAC. Which R's aside from Thune, Collins, and Liberman (R-CT) are in the "desperately hope to save my base" camp?

[KdmFromPhila]

I hope that Lott's statement is the first sign that Republican senators will pubicly jockey for control of Republican caucus in the senate. McCain, Lott and McConnell..let them work out their differences in a long very public fight.

[praktike]

OK, so Domenici is another one on the BRAC list, and he's also a committee chair. He was probably sympathetic to the Gang of 14 (remember how he was mentioned specifically by Ornstein as one of the potential good guys?) but didn't want to speak out. Committee chairs are natural opposers of WH and majority leader power. Anyone know what he's up to (aside from voting for cloture on Thursday)?

[DHinMI]

Trent Lott:

The Pentagon has decided to shut down Pascagoula Naval Station and shrink Keesler Air Force Base by about 400 jobs, part of an overall hit of more than 1,500 jobs on the coast, according to a list of recommended base closures released Friday morning.

Closing Pascagoula would cost 963 military and civilian jobs, Pentagon documents show. In addition, the Navy's Human Resources Support Center Southeast, located at the Stennis Space Center, would relocate to Pennsylvania, a loss of 148 civilian and contractor jobs.

Sen. Trent Lott said the process "represents a cop-out by the Congress of its duties. I continue to dislike the process and the fact that any Mississippi facilities are on today's closure list."

[praktike]

Aha! good find on Lott. Do you think the Dems were thinking about BRAC coming down the pike, or did they just get lucky?

[emptywheel]

praktike:

If I'm Frist ... you know what I would do? I would quit very publicly RIGHT NOW and turn myself into a political martyr for the religious right, and then start to assert control over them so that I become my own man. But I don't think he'll do that.

Good one. That would be about his only successful move. Are you sure you weren't a fundamentalist demagogue in a past life?

I think DH summarizes my out-of-arse speculation well--that Frist got taken by Reid AND some members of his own caucus. We just get to try to figure out who participating in the Takings so we can try to exploit it. Although I assume Reid is doing a good job of that himself.

I suspect KEEPING Frist benefits McCain the most (it WOULD have benefitted Hagel the most if he had gotten his head out of his arse on the Gang of 14 and Bolton votes, but, well, he lost his chance). Which is why I'm wondering whether McCain's involvement in the Bolton nomination isn't an effort to throw him what looks like a life preserver (make it easier for teh Senate as a whole to punt on Bolton, since they're never going to get the intercepts), but is actually an anvil.

And I'll repeat a question I've been repeating a lot. What kind of dynamic IS there between McCain and his former Campaign Co-Chair Hagel now? How and when are they going to duke it out for the paleo/sane Republican slot in 2008?

Now can I get the popcorn again, please?

[emptywheel]

praktike

And to think two weeks ago we were all worried that the impending BRAC announcement was going to be the critical factor that convinced Collins and Snowe and Holy Joe to vote FOR Bolton. Hasn't quite worked out that way, has it?

[DemFromCT]

The scuttlebut was that Lott's base was closing because the Navy was sick of him interfering with their ship-building plans (which didn't incude MS, but Lott always wanted another pork project the Navy didn't). Folks in CT thought MS would close and Joe's kiss and Simmon's boyish good looks (not) would keep Groton open.

Snowe and Collins know that they can dangle Portsmouth, but it's closing regardless.

[DHinMI]

I don't know if the Dems got lucky, but it's getting more and more likely that Repubs' states will be hurt by base closings, because other than a couple naval bases on the Northern coasts and the big naval, Marine and USAF bases in California, the preponderance of military facilities are in states now quite heavily Republican.

But I suspect that on this stuff we just got lucky, although I am reminded that UCLA coach John Wooden described luck as the confluence of preparation and opportunity.

[DHinMI]

RE: Lott on shipbuilding--his father worked in the shipyards, and he's long been a darling of the Maritime Trades unions for his pork-dealing on naval building. So Dem's theory makes a lot of sense.

[Kagro X]

Frist is incompetent. And that's why they put him there. So that there would never be an independent Senate, capable of flexing its own muscles and asserting itself against the power of the presidency.

He probably didn't have to get suckered to have missed on the vote count. He probably just blew it straight up. Has he ever really had to count votes ever in his "career?"

Up to this point, Frist has been able to perform the job of Majority Leader because it was simply a matter of repeating talking points, and being a reliable vote for the White House. Whipping votes was itself simply a matter of saying 9-11/the President needs you/time of war/moral values/terrorists have already won and figuring nobody had the balls to disobey.

This week may be the first time Frist has ever realized that his members each won 55 separate elections to get there, and that they're not repsonsible for saving his bacon, or Bush's.

Surpise. It's amateur hour. Again.

[Mimikatz]

So should the Dems offer the ladies from Maine a stem cell research center (to make up for losing Portsmouth) if they agree to change parties?

[praktike]

I like your style, Mimikatz.

[Kagro X]

Oh my, is that a good one.