{"id":13711,"date":"2007-11-26T08:26:10","date_gmt":"2007-11-26T13:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/13711.html"},"modified":"2007-11-26T08:26:10","modified_gmt":"2007-11-26T13:26:10","slug":"trent-lott-to-resign-from-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/trent-lott-to-resign-from-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Trent Lott to resign from Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"

There have been rumors about Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott’s (R-Miss.) future plans, but this news<\/a> will almost certainly catch the political world off-guard.<\/p>\n

NBC News has learned that Trent Lott’s in the midst of informing close allies that he plans to resign his senate seat before the end of the year. It’s possible a formal announcement of his plans could take place as early as today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lott was just re-elected to another term a year ago<\/a>, so he wouldn’t have to face any kind of challenge until 2012. Even then, most would agree that Lott’s is one of the safest seats in the chamber.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it’s a bizarre time for Lott to end his career. After a humiliating fall from grace<\/a> in 2002, Lott had mounted a slow-but-steady comeback. He’d finally rejoined the Senate Republican leadership, elected as the Minority Whip earlier this year. For that matter, as of a few months ago, he’d raised about $1.5 million<\/a> for his leadership political action committee, which senators on the verge of resignation rarely do.<\/p>\n

There really haven’t been any hints of this announcement at all. Far from preparing an exit, Lott has been acting like someone more engaged in the political process than ever, even hosting a meeting<\/a> last month with “a handful of the Senate’s most notable compromisers to figure out how to unclog the gridlock that has slowed the chamber’s progress this year.”<\/p>\n

And yet, a month later, Lott is not only prepared to retire, but poised to give up his seat five years ahead of schedule?<\/p>\n

We’ll probably hear something about “spending more time with his family,” but there’s something odd about this story.
\n
\nAs for what happens next, Josh Kraushaar has some helpful details<\/a> about possible successors.<\/p>\n

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) would be tasked with appointing a replacement for Lott to serve before the special election is held. […]<\/p>\n

Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.), who announced his retirement from the House earlier this year, would be a leading candidate for the Senate seat in the special election. Another possible GOP contender for the seat would be Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)<\/p>\n

On the Democratic side, former Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore has been mentioned as a strong statewide candidate in an otherwise heavily Republican state.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Moore would definitely be a credible Senate candidate, giving Dems a possible pick-up opportunity — exactly what Republicans don’t want to hear right now. In fact, Lott’s departure would make him the sixth<\/i> Republican senator to step down this cycle, making a difficult landscape all the more challenging (and reviving Democratic hopes of possibly reaching a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority).<\/p>\n

As for today, the AP reports<\/a> that Lott has scheduled two news conferences in Mississippi today. According to congressional sources, Lott’s resignation is not due to health problems, but simply that the senator has “other opportunities” he plans to pursue.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There have been rumors about Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott’s (R-Miss.) future plans, but this news will almost certainly catch the political world off-guard. NBC News has learned that Trent Lott’s in the midst of informing close allies that he plans to resign his senate seat before the end of the year. It’s possible a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}