Word: lott
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Hello, Mr. President. This is Lazarus speaking." That is how Trent Lott answered a phone call last week from George W. Bush, the man who helped force him out of the Senate's top job in 2002 after Lott praised Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential campaign. Maybe Lott is selling himself short. After all, Lazarus was in the tomb for only four days, but it took Lott, 65, four years to mount the improbable comeback that culminated in his election last Wednesday as minority whip, the second most powerful G.O.P. position in the Senate. But if Bush, who called...
...would Senate Republicans choose the controversial Lott after an electoral drubbing that saw them lose, among other things, the hard-fought progress they had made with nonwhite voters, especially African Americans? And why pick someone who is known to have an ax to grind with the White House at a time when the party should regroup and unify...
...Lott captured the minority whip post by the slimmest of margins, winning 25-24 in the secret ballot over Tennessee Senator and former G.O.P. presidential hopeful Alexander. "I feel exhilarated I have an opportunity to come back," he told reporters. That comeback may have surprised people outside of the Beltway, but it has been carefully plotted for quite a while. After he was replaced by his colleagues as the Senate leader with Frist, it was expected Lott might simply remain in the shadows or even retire. Instead, he got himself a plum post as the Senate Rules Committee, helped...
...fact, Lott is still angry at the White House - and especially Karl Rove - for the way he was so unceremoniously dumped, so he may not be as willing as other Republicans to do the Administration's bidding. That's only one of the risks the choice of Lott for such a prominent position carries. Republicans replaced him as their leader because they worried that his remarks about Thurmond didn't reflect well for a party trying to win minority voters and even moderate white voters by diversifying its ranks and avoiding race-baiting tactics it has used in the past...
...move is also surprising since Lott has ascended to the Senate post in the same week that Republicans appointed Mel Martinez, a Senator from Florida, to head the National Republican Committee. Martinez, who is Cuban-American, is expected to help Republicans woo Latin voters. Republicans, however, say they're not worried about Lott's past remarks. ""People understand he has been deeply apologetic," said Maine's Olympia Snowe, a close friend of Lott's. Lott's colleagues have been willing to forgive him for his comments. Now, if he helps them win back the Senate, maybe they'll even forget...