{"id":13739,"date":"2007-11-28T11:12:25","date_gmt":"2007-11-28T16:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/13739.html"},"modified":"2007-11-28T11:12:25","modified_gmt":"2007-11-28T16:12:25","slug":"lotts-resignation-moves-republicans-even-further-to-the-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/lotts-resignation-moves-republicans-even-further-to-the-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Lott’s resignation moves Republicans even further to the right"},"content":{"rendered":"

By any reasonable measure, outgoing Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) hasn’t exactly been a moderate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lott was forced out of his Majority Leader seat in disgrace in late 2002<\/a>, after heralding the segregationist platform of former South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond. Speaking at a Thurmond’s 100th birthday bash, Lott said, “When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems<\/a> over all these years, either.” Lott’s history of intolerance is well-documented. In 1981, Lott declared, “Racial discrimination does not always violate public policy<\/a>.” In 1998, he likened homosexuality to “personal problems as alcoholism<\/a>, kleptomania and ‘sex addiction.'” He maintains an affiliation<\/a> with the Council of Conservative Citizens, described as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League<\/a>. In June 2007, Lott likened securing America’s borders to an “electrified goat fence<\/a>,” stating that “there’s an analogy there” for immigration reform.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that’s just on questions of tolerance and diversity. On practically every question of domestic and foreign policy, Trent Lott has been a consistent and predictable conservative Republican.<\/p>\n

And yet, many reporters are noting that his abrupt resignation from Congress manages to move to the Senate Republican caucus even further to the right<\/a>. Oddly enough, that’s true.<\/p>\n

The departure of Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott will cost Congress one of its premiere deal makers and opens the door to a further shift to the right by Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n

Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl appears all but certain to get the whip post now held by Mr. Lott and would bring a more confrontational style to the No. 2 leadership job. Skirmishes were already taking shape yesterday between younger Senate conservatives and the Republicans’ increasingly isolated moderate wing, which is trying to hold onto a place in the party leadership.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, moderate Senate Republicans — all three of them — had come to rely on Trent Lott<\/i> as an ally.
\n
\nThe point isn’t that Lott harbored some centrist sympathies — he never has — it’s that he seemed to enjoy the art of the deal. He relished pragmatism, and was willing to occasionally strike compromises<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lott’s departure from Capitol Hill in the coming weeks after 34 years in Congress — 16 in the House, 18 in the Senate — is further evidence that bonhomie and cross-party negotiating are losing their currency, even in the backslapping Senate. With the Senate populated by a record number of former House members, the rules of the Old Boys’ Club are giving way to the partisan trench warfare and party-line votes that prevail in the House. […]<\/p>\n

“The Senate is predicated on the ability of people being able to work together,” said former senator Don Nickles (R-Okla.), who was majority whip for much of Lott’s years as majority leader. “I’m not throwing rocks at anybody, but there’s just been a lot less of that.”<\/p>\n

Former majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) agreed: “Senator Lott’s resignation means the loss of one of the few Republicans in leadership who often excelled in finding compromise and common ground.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It seems almost silly to think the departure of a right-wing Republican from Mississippi could make the Senate GOP even more<\/i> conservative and ideologically rigid, and yet, here we are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By any reasonable measure, outgoing Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) hasn’t exactly been a moderate. Lott was forced out of his Majority Leader seat in disgrace in late 2002, after heralding the segregationist platform of former South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond. Speaking at a Thurmond’s 100th birthday bash, Lott said, “When Strom Thurmond ran for president, […]<\/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-13739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13739","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=13739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}