Word: colmer
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...young Lott family returned to Pascagoula, where Trent practiced law. But after less than a year, the district's veteran Congressman, William Colmer, chairman of the rules committee and a staunch segregationist, offered Lott a top staff job. The family packed their belongings into a green Pontiac Bonneville and set out for Washington, as Tricia put it, "to stay a couple of years and see if we liked...
...When Colmer, a Democrat, in 1972 announced his retirement from the House, Lott declared his candidacy--as a Republican--and eventually won his mentor's endorsement. Lott proved an energetic and persuasive campaigner. As he later explained to his son, "If a little old lady with a cane and a mustache asks you to kiss her, you better do it and enjoy it, or she's gonna know it." Lott lost 15 lbs. that he didn't have to lose. He sometimes lost his voice. But he won the election...
Lott actually began his career as a conservative Democrat, serving as a top aide to Representative William Colmer, a segregationist, before switching to the G.O.P. to run for Colmer's seat when the boss retired in 1972. Cashing in on his college contacts from Ole Miss, where he was head cheerleader, Lott won with 55% of the vote and never looked back. In 1988 he became only the second G.O.P. Senator from his state since Reconstruction and soon leapfrogged over far more senior Republicans onto the top rungs of the leadership ladder. After the Republican sweep of 1994, he even...