After his Strom Thurmond/”Better off” scandal forced Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) from his leadership post, the former Senate Majority Leader was none too pleased with his GOP colleagues. When he expected them to stand by him, they hung him out to dry. Lott, it appears, holds a grudge.
Immediately after the Thurmond affair, Lott sought out Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Though McCain’s penchant for independence and lack of party loyalty drove Lott nuts when he served as majority leader, Lott, angered by GOP betrayal, told McCain, “I’m going to be just like you.” He even joked with reporters, “I am not an instinctive troublemaker, but I maybe could learn.”
And learn he has.
The Hill, for example, reported today that Lott is “refusing to contribute to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and is giving virtually nothing to other party fundraising outfits.”
Lott went so far as to mock the “team ball” fundraising program that Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) created for the NRSC.
“I think we need some sort of analogy other than football,” Lott said, after shaking his head and expressing exasperation.
Allen (R-Va.), son of the legendary former Washington Redskins football coach, often relies on football analogies to try to inspire fellow Republicans to work together to raise money. The “team ball” program tasks each Republican with raising tens of thousands of dollars to support Republican incumbents and challengers. Allen brought a football to a recent GOP lunch meeting to encourage participation.
Lott also expressed a lack of confidence in Allen’s NRSC, indicating that he thought it hadn’t done enough to expand the GOP’s narrow 51-49 Senate majority. “I gave ’em $1.5 million last year,” Lott said. “What good did it do them?”
Someone a little bitter?
Keep in mind, Lott’s maverick streak developed quickly after he was forced from his post, but has been readily apparent ever since. For a man who once treasured party loyalty above almost anything, Lott has, in just the last year, voted against a prescription-drug bill backed by the White House, joined with Senate Dems in rejecting the Bush-backed effort to relax media-ownership caps, and bucked his party on Bush’s dividend tax cut, GOP pork-barrel spending, and the practice of using secret “holds” to block votes on the Senate floor.
When Time asked about his change in style, Lott said, “Look, I’m here. And I’m going to try to be helpful. Sometimes that will get me crossed up with the Administration.” Lott added, “I am sending the signal that they’re going to have to deal with me, and they need to keep that in mind, because I can be a problem.”
Trent Lott and I don’t agree on much of anything, but it’s kind of fun to watch him revel in his role as a “problem” for the Senate GOP.