A Lott of goodbyes

Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss) has announced his retirement, effective sometime in December or January.  Though his temporary replacement will be nominated and placed by Republican Governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, this is a stunning turn for Republicans in the Senate.  As the #2 Republican in the Senate (and formerly the #1 Republican and Majority Leader), Lott made himself a lot of friends and made himself a lot of enemies--especially after his comments about how it would have been great if a segregationist candidate (Strom Thurmond) had won the 1948 presidential race.

What's my take?  Anytime a powerful conservative decides to leave either house of the Congress, I'm perfectly happy.  Of course, chances are good that Arizona Senator John Kyl, who is loads more conservative than most of the Republicans in Congress, will take over as minority whip.  Then again, it's possible that someone else might overtake him.  It's also possible that either Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) or Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), both of whom are more moderate than Kyl, might run for the #3 spot. 

In all, though, it probably won't matter much between now and--at the very least--2009 when the new Congress takes over.  As long as Democrats maintain a majority, it seems much less likely that this change will have a major effect on legislation.  True, a conservative leadership on the Republican side of the aisle would make bipartisanship more difficult (just as a liberal leadership on the Democratic side would).  However, the immediate impact would not be as large as it would have been if the Republicans still controlled the Senate.

Comments

[Andrew]

Lott should have resigned a few years ago when he made that wonderful comment in praise of Strom Thurmond. Good riddance.

[yea]

goodbye racist. you symbolize a lot of the things wrong with this country.

[Condor]

If the rest of the Republicans had followed Lott's lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either.

True, a conservative leadership on the Republican side of the aisle would make bipartisanship more difficult

More difficult than it already is?

[Wobbly H]

There have been a couple of blogs that say that Lott is a toe-tapper who's been doing it with a male prostitute. I find that just as likely as Hillary scissoring her aide or whoever that is--not very.

[Joe Mama]

Yes, it's about time that a senator who praised another senator with a racist past resigned.

[Becky]

I'd love Jon Kyl as Minority Whip. He's a principled guy and that makes him predictable in all the right ways. I don't always agree with Kyl's viewpoints, but I have immense respect for the man as a Senator. That's why I voted for him over Jim Pederson, who seemed irredeemably smarmy.