{"id":13717,"date":"2007-11-26T13:20:53","date_gmt":"2007-11-26T18:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/13717.html"},"modified":"2007-11-26T13:20:53","modified_gmt":"2007-11-26T18:20:53","slug":"why-is-lott-resigning-five-years-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/why-is-lott-resigning-five-years-early\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Lott resigning five years early?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following up on this morning’s item<\/a>, there are a variety of official and unofficial reasons for Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), just one year after asking voters in Mississippi to give him another six-year term, giving up his seat before the end of the calendar year. Some are more plausible than others.<\/p>\n

* Explanation #1<\/b>: “Spend more time with the family.” Roll Call reports<\/a> that Lott’s “shocking move sources said was precipitated by a desire to spend more time with his family.” The article added that Lott “wants to spend more time with his grandchildren.” Plausibility rating: On a scale of one to 10, I’d give this one a two. His family hasn’t changed much this year, and yet, he just sought re-election and just maneuvered his way into a leadership post.<\/p>\n

* Explanation #2<\/b>: He’s “fed up” with Washington.” The WaPo reports<\/a> that Lott “grew tired of the political infighting in the Senate as Republicans have been forced into a position of merely blocking a Democratic agenda.” Plausibility rating: Maybe a three. In April, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said<\/a>, “The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail … and so far it’s working for us.”<\/p>\n

* Explanation #3<\/b>: He’s cashing in. MSNBC reports<\/a>, “While the exactly reason Lott is stepping down before he finishes his term is unknown, the general speculation is that a quick departure immunizes Lott against tougher restrictions in a new lobbying law that takes effect at the end of the year. That law would require Senators to wait two-years before entering the lucrative world of lobbying Congress.” Plausibility rating: An easy 10.<\/p>\n

As Republican senators go, Lott isn’t exactly independently wealthy. It was only a matter of time before he cashed in and went from being a politician on corporate interests’ payroll to being a lobbyist on corporate interests’ payroll. A Lott confidant conceded to the Politico that the lobbying law, passed earlier this year, was “a factor in the timing<\/a>” of Lott’s departure.<\/p>\n

In fact, it appears Lott has been laying the groundwork for this for quite a while.
\n
\nLott, who opposed the Dems’ sweeping lobbying reform measure, has been looking out for the interests of lobbyists for years. Matt Corley explains<\/a>:<\/p>\n

* In Jan. 2006, Lott praised “the practice of secretly inserting special projects into spending bills at the behest of lobbyists,” calling it “an effective way for Congress to address a problem or need back home.”<\/p>\n

* In Feb. 2006, Lott derided the effort to fix lobbying loopholes after the Jack Abramoff scandal as “the usual over reaction that we see happen quite often in Washington.”<\/p>\n

* In March 2006, Lott voted against establishing a Senate Office of Public Integrity.<\/p>\n

* In March 2006, when Congress sought to ban free meals from lobbyists, Lott defended the free meals, saying a ban would imply “that we can be had for the price of a lunch or dinner.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One quickly gets the sense that the two big differences between 2007 Lott and 2008 Lott are that he’ll no longer have a vote in the Senate, and corporate interests will no longer have a limit on how much they can pay him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following up on this morning’s item, there are a variety of official and unofficial reasons for Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), just one year after asking voters in Mississippi to give him another six-year term, giving up his seat before the end of the calendar year. Some are more plausible than others. * Explanation #1: “Spend […]<\/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-13717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13717","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=13717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}