Dems get under Trent Lott’s skin

September 26, 2006

To briefly follow up on yesterday’s item, the Democratic Policy Committee’s “hearing” on Iraq and Donald Rumsfeld’s stewardship of the Pentagon seemed to go quite well. Attendance was strong, lawmakers from both parties attended, and military experts offered a variety of compelling perspectives about the war and its management. The press largely blew it off, of course, but only because the media tends to ignore any event at which Dems have something important to say.

Nevertheless, the entire hearing seemed … what’s the word … congressional. Lawmakers asking questions, discussing important issues, talking about accountability — if you closed your eyes, you’d think it was 1994 all over again. Indeed, Maj. Gen. John Batiste, the former commander of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, said he’s been anxious to talk to lawmakers about the war, but Republicans refused to give him a chance. “I find that outrageous,” the general said. “I have a sense for what I’m talking about.”

So, how does the Senate GOP respond to yesterday’s gathering? At least one GOP senator is offering menacing threats. (thanks to J.B. for the tip)

Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) is threatening to punish Democrats for using an Appropriations Committee room for an unofficial hearing on Iraq oversight if it happens again.

“They better stop this,” the Mississippi Republican said. “This will be the last one or there will be retribution.”

Lott suggested that Republicans could hold GOP-only hearings or seek other forms of payback.

Poor Trent seems a little confused. Dems have been waiting for Republicans to do their jobs, and then simply got tired of waiting. Yesterday wasn’t a Dems-only hearing; Republicans were invited to participate and some did. The idea that Lott is going to respond to “GOP-only hearings” is foolish, even for him.

Then the Mississippi senator pushed his concerns to an absurd level.

Consider this gem:

Lott and other Republicans are upset that Democrats have gone outside the committee process to highlight the Iraq war before the November election.

“They’re abusing the system,” Lott said.

This has to be one of my favorite GOP quotes in a long while. If Democratic members of the Senate get together, ask some experts to answer some questions about the war, and host the event in a public room on the Hill, Trent Lott thinks it’s “abusing the system.”

No wonder the Republican Congress doesn’t do any work — they’re forgotten what real work actually looks like.

He’s right. They’re abusing the new-mutant-Republican system of no oversight, no accountability, and no consequences for the failures of governance and the misappropriation of the public’s money.

That’s a system I wish everyone would abuse, including and especially non-mutant Republicans, if any are left after the Decade of DeLay.

  • Is Trent Lott expecting to be Majority (Minority?) Leader again now that Frist is leaving?

    Who cares what he says?

  • ***”They better stop this,” the Mississippi Republican said. “This will be the last one or there will be retribution.”***
    ———————Trent Lott

    Hey Trent. I’m sick of your yammering, cowardly threats to cover the legislative impotence of your party. Knock it off—or I’ll start telling high-school kids to avoid your freaking military recruiting centers like the plague. Then you and your gaggle of GOPhers can go and fight the wretched Iraq Quagmire thing yourself.

    How much you wanna bet his office lacks the cojones to respond?

  • Trent, you stupid fucking sonovabitch, it’s the GOP-only attitude and policies that got us INTO this fucking mess, so if you want to highlight the way your party and your policies are fucking up the country, go right ahead.

    Asshole.

  • Aren’t these “hearings” the same thing as the GOP field “hearings” on immigration? Heavy on theater and lite on policy?

    I’m not trying to belittle the importance of war-making policy, but fragmented and toothless oversight is just begging to be ignored by MSM.

  • When are people going to realize that the conservative republican movement’s motivation over the last 30 or so years is to consolidate ALL power of government into a one party rule. Folks, that is NOT what the founders of our nation intended. We have had it since 2000, and look at the state of our union. As for Trent Lott, the only thing that yellow bellied mud sucker is missing is a white robe and dunce cap. He’s the Klan in a $1000 suit.

  • Chris (#4) said it pretty well (though he left out “Strom Thurmond butt licker”). citizen_pain (#6) got into some pretty good digs, too. It’s a shame Katrina didn’t Trent out when she took his Mississippi mansion.

  • Hopefully after the next elections, we will have more that a do-nothing Republican Congress, one which fairly attacks the issues and does more than just cover up the gross deficiencies of our current national leadership.

  • What’s he going to do? Put horses’ heads in all of their beds? Fit them with concrete booties and send them to sleep with the snakeheads in the Potomac? Come to work with a machine gun in a violin case and rub out the wise guys who made him mad? Bite. Me. Trent.

    But assume for a moment that the ignorant wank-fiend from Mississippi is more than a cancerous pig’s bladder filled with massive amounts of foul, hot air. I think he got annoyed into publicly expressing what the neo cons say in private: People who ask questions must be punished.

  • If the Dems have any fight in them (just a fraction of what Clinton displayed the other day will suffice), they’ll use Lott’s words against the GOP in this election season. Dems should portray the GOP as the “do nothing” party that just rubber stamps everything dubya does.

  • Trent “Scarface” Lott is not a leader or noble legislator, as he might picture himself, but a small-time hood threatening other legitimate legislators with “saying hello to my little friend.” How can he not see that he’s acting like a five year old on a playground? I wonder if the Roman Senate was acting like this right before the empire collapsed? We seriously need to have adults back in charge.

  • Vote for the party of oversight- vote Democratic! I have to say the less I hear Trent Lott the more I like him and vice versa. I really hated old helmet hair when he was Maj. leader and then after he stepped aside and stopped being on TV all the time I didn’t mind him so much. Now he is back on the TV and on my bad side.

    I don’t think the argument that Republicans blocked committee hearings on the war (and everything else) and the Democrats out flanked them and held hearings anyway is going to win anyone over.

    How serious can the people take the GOP when a do nothing, obstructionist, cut and run, minority party that does not have a plan out manuvers them?

  • In the last few days we have learned that Chris Wallace was afraid he was going to get his butt kicked on camera by Big Bill Clinton just because Big Bill leaned into him both verbally and physically. And now we see how easy it is to get Trent Lott’s frilly panties in a knot just by holding a meeting where the pursuit of honest information was both hoped for and achieved. RepubCo wimps are all about facade and bluster and B.S. swagger. They are hollow and they are only strong when they all move forward holding on to the same hunk of balony.

    Everytime Dems get together and act like they know where they’re going and they grab a handful of control, it’s not only positive in spirit but it’s effective. This kind of stuff that gets any significant Repub snot in a publicly displayed twist should be as common as pollen. Not weekly or monthly. Daily. It’s what the citizens of this country are waiting for.

    Every single day should be Piss Off RepubCo Day.
    Every single day should be Piss Off RepubCo Day.
    Every single day should be Piss Off RepubCo Day.

  • Ed, I appreciate the approval, but now I have to go squirt soap into about seven holes in my head to get the image of Trent Lott butt-licking Strom Thurmond out of my mind.

    It’s either that, or trepanation, and don’t think I’m not tempted.

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