I really thought Lott was finished after he was ousted 4 years ago, but I guess this just goes to show how skilled a politician he is.

This is pathetic

Honestly Godfrey....not any where near as pathetic as this:

"Robert C. Byrd Named President Pro Tempore

Senator third in line for the presidency behind the vice president, speaker of the House."

Well, things pathetic that are predictable and part of a pathetic whole are less psychologically discomfiting than the case where one has held some hope for better.

I think they goofed up in outing him, his racial controversy was what seemed like an honest mistake. If you look at it this way, Frist didn't do poop to hold republicans together or saved them from the disgrace.

My dislike of Lott is of the same source as you mention regarding Frist--failed leadership--and nothing to do with the phony "racial" non-issue.

Though as pointed out by someone, there's something painfully ironic about Trent Lott being named "minority whip."

Ah, the old white male conservative from the south ergo racist formulation that the Dems are so fond of nurturing despite the current modern reality.

Jatfla,
Comparing Byrd to Trent Lott??? Please . . .
Me thinks I hear another sour grapes about Byrd's opposition to Bush's Iraq War.

The formulation Godfrey Daniel refers to is nurtured quite a bit when an old white conservative from Mississippi says that the country would have been better off if it had elected a segregationist president. The Democrats don't have to do anything.

Comparing Byrd to Trent Lott??? Please . . .
Me thinks I hear another sour grapes about Byrd's opposition to Bush's Iraq War.

I hope this was meant as a joke. I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I would rather laugh.

That's ok, Wilhelm; don't cry for heavens sake, I've heard it all before about Byrd and I can counter all your out of state arguments with first-hand WV experience. Boring, I'd rather hear why you thought Bob Corker beat Harold Ford.

Yeah, JK, that's exactly what he meant. Pay no attention to both men's last 30 years of life.

Bob Corker beat Harold Ford.

Well beside the fact Tennessee is a conservative state and generally elects conservative Senators, the Ford Family has an atrocious reputation in Tennessee. Harold Ford's uncle just got busted for accepting bribes and faces 60 years in prison. Ophelia Ford had to give up her State Rep seat for vote fraud. Also Harold Ford has never lived in Tennessee. To cap it all off, his lies were told very poorly. No one believed his ads touting his "conservatism". He missed more votes in Congress than just about everyone. He raised almost all his money from outside Tennessee. Corker had Tennessee support.

Apropos of nothing, I remember hearing about a black man named Harold Ford running for Senator. (Remember now I don't have cable and watch very little TV) Sometime later during the election I was at my Dad's house and he was watching CSPAN or something, and I said, Hey Dad, who's that guy? Harold Ford, he said. Wow I'm mixed up, said I, I thought Harold Ford was a black man. He is, said my Dad. Oh, said I.

For GD's sad brushing away of Lott's racist thinking:

"Lott had attracted controversy before in issues relating to civil rights. As a Congressman, he voted against renewal of the Voting Rights Act and opposed the Martin Luther King Holiday. Lott also maintained an affiliation with the Council of Conservative Citizens, which is described as a hate group by the ADL, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Southern Poverty Law Center."

Thanks Wilhelm,
I appreciate an insider's perspective about that close race.

Senator Lott was making a silly joke concerning Sen. Thurmond (I think) and because of the created scandal, he resigned his position. Senator Byrd has apologized for his past racist associations and apparently been forgiven and even elevated now.

My issues with Sen. Byrd have nothing to do with his position on the war (didn't know he opposed it) but with his age and his ability to perform the duties required if he were ever put in such a position of extreme crisis. I view the choice of him as irresponsible.

Thanks lonely_planet for the backup.

Just to clarify GD, I did not bring up Thurmond's 1948 presidential run. Trent Lott did.

Trent Lott said:

"I want to say this about my state: 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 over all these years, either."

1

Surely don't think I didn't know that.

As I said, if you wish to interpret that in the worst possible way, not factoring in the realities of both men's lives at the time of that quote, fine, but it's pretty transparent bias.