This is Unfreakinbelievable:
Sen. Trent Lott, ousted from the top Senate Republican leadership job four years ago because of remarks considered racially insensitive, won election to the No. 2 post Wednesday for the minority GOP in the next Congress.
Lott returned to the center of power by getting the position of vote-counting GOP whip, nosing out Sen. Lamar Alexander. Sen. Rick Santorum told reporters that Lott beat Alexander by a 25-24 vote.
After an intense evening in which both men lobbied colleagues during floor votes, the Republican caucus elected Lott, a one-time whip and majority leader, by secret ballot. Lott will be the GOP’s second-in-command to Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who was elected unanimously to be the Senate minority leader in the new Congress.
The Republican party is officially out of ideas. It’s worse than that really. We could be looking at good-old-boy networking, corruption, or stupidy behind this, and other recent moves, but I’m starting to think all three forces are at work here.
Hot Air: Suspect on racial issues and pork-friendly. Just the right man to help remake the party. Between this and Mel Martinez, we’re really on a roll.
Iowa Voices: Chalk up another “F-you” from the Republicans in Congress.
James Joyner: It’s rather hard to claim that the party has changed when presenting the same old faces who got them where they are now.
Stop the ACLU: Doesn’t look like they learned anything yet. Maybe they need more drubbing.
The American Pundit: We really needed someone who is quoted on Porkbusters’ front page as saying “I’ll just say this about the so-called porkbusters. I’m getting damn tired of hearing from them. They have been nothing but trouble ever since Katrina”.
Right Voices: Between this and Mel Martinez, we’re really on a roll.
PostWatch: Combined with other inspiring actions like the Sen. Mel Amnesty Martinez becoming the head of the Republican National Committee, it appears the GOP has decided it needs some time to recover from the burdens of leadership. Say, ten or fifteen years.
Captain’s Quarters: We sent Republicans to clean up Congress, not to clean up for themselves in porkfests that rival anything that came before them. Trent Lott represents the worst of that class, and the mere idea that he remains in consideration for a leadership position after his commentary this year proves that the GOP hasn’t listened hard enough.
Spencerian: Yes, apparently that Trent Lott is back in the public eye! None other than the blatantly racist United States Senator Chester Trent Lott
Free Republic: We suck.
The Bidinotto Blog: Trent Lott, just elected Senate minority whip by his GOP colleagues, represents the worst of the old-boy network in the Republican Party: an aphilosophical, wheeler-dealer, pork-peddling pragmatist with a long, ugly record of compromises, sell-outs, and “me-too’ing” in the face of liberal Democrat intiatives. Lott wouldn’t know a moral principle if it walked up and spit in his face.
Macsmind: Reality check for the blogging elite, you are never going to stop politicans from being politicians.
Protein Wisdom: Now, if somebody will volunteer to dig up Dick Nixon and get him on the ticket for ‘08—maybe with Buchanan as a running mate (if Angnew’s moldering corpse proves too difficult to keep tethered to a chair in one solid piece)—the GOP can officially finish itself off with one last glut of pork, then, by way of massive party coronary, return us all to our republic’s salad days of Carteresque social and foreign policy.
Cold Fury: They’ve learned nothing, and do not deserve the merest shred of further support. Get used to hearing “President Clinton” adoringly murmured by suck-butt LLMSM sycophants at WH press conferences again, people - it’s coming as surely as night follows day.
The American Princess: We get vaguely racist (in the good way, not the isolationist, Pat Buchanan kind of way), kind of aloof, and incompetent, all over again.
Instapundit: LEARNED NOTHING, FORGOTTEN NOTHING
Michelle Malkin: Just when the MSM focus had fixed on the Democrats’ culture of corruption and business-as-usual, along come Beltway Republicans to remind us of how lame the GOP leadership is.
John Hawkins: …if you’re looking for signs that the GOP is getting back to its conservative roots in Washington, there aren’t many to be seen right now.
Dean Barnett: Is it just me, or is it becoming increasingly apparent that the Republicans and Democrats are determined to engage in a two year dumb-off? If it weren’t for the fact that there are some very determined lunatics out there trying to kill us, this would be funny.
Mary Katharine Ham: Get on the phones for Pence and Shadegg. We need them. 202-225-3121. Capitol switchboard, baby!
Wizbang!: Just when you thought the Senate Republicans couldn’t become any less exciting
Four Right Wing Wackos: The sooner the Republican party is demolished, the sooner we can get back to putting this country back on track. Until then the Republicans are just another obstruction, part of the problem. They’ve just shown us that they will never be part of the solution. LET THEM DIE!
Right Wing Nut House: I am much less sanguine about the chances for a Republican resurgence. In fact, I see more losses in 2008 even if we win the Presidency and another several years or more in the political wilderness. This is the consequence of putting amoral, arrogant, power hungry people in charge of the party. And the hell of it is, an election debacle like the one we just went through should have given the entire party an excuse to change. And so far, all I see is more of the same.
Snapped Shot: This is getting ridiculous, and it’s obvious that the RNC has lost its last clue. Can we please start replacing that pile of useless, spineless idiots with one of the more conservative alternatives yet?
JunkYardBlog: Memo to GOP leadership: I still haven’t quite received your message. Would you like to come over to my house and urinate on my shoes, just so I understand you more clearly?
Stubborn Facts: So they want to keep the same defeated leadership team in the House, and in the Senate, Lott is back on the job? Idiots. There’s no other word for it.
The Buzz Blog: Trent Lott was elected Minority Whip by the Senate Republicans. My question is why? It’s not like Lott’s leadership of the Senate four years ago was some sort of golden age.
The Moderate Voice: So this will likely help the GOP’s operations in the Senate, return to high media profile someone who is an excellent interview source because he gives good, lively concise quotes (and has good hair).
James Joyner (part II): Apparently, the Senate Republicans would rather help bolster the party’s image as one dominated by Southern racists than risk getting outmaneuvered in parliamentary procedures by Dick Durbin. But due to the controversy that shoved him off his Majority Leader’s seat, it isn’t going to be the best face on the GOP if it wants to offset lingering damage from the over-the-line Harold Ford ad among black voters.
Blue Crab Boulevard: Let’s be kind here, this is a horrendously bad move for the Republicans on a PR level alone. Lott is going to have to deliver a fabulous performance to redeem himself. The bar is set very, very high.
And this pretty much sums up the reaction from the Left:
Wonkette: Hooray for the return of the Republican party that creeps the hell out of everyone above the Mason-Dixon line!
But you can continue on to Democratic Underground for laughs.
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Filed Under:
Politics
November 15th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Add my blogger’s voice to this choir. The only thing I can say about this new Congress is that — Democrat AND Republican — it’s going to provide people like us with a target-rich environment.
November 15th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
It’s Not Just The Stupid Party…
It’s the Suicide Party:Trent Lott Returns To Senate Leadership WASHINGTON - Sen. Trent Lott, ousted from the Senate’s leadership job four years ago because of remarks considered racially insensitive, won election to the No. 2 post Wednesday. Lott ret…
November 15th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
THEY HAVEN’T LEARNED A GODDAMNED THING…
One would think that a political party, drunk on power, pork, and perks, who suffered a humiliating and devastating loss at the polls would take a few weeks to sit down and reflect seriously on the root cause of that defeat and make a good faith effor…
November 15th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
Back to the future….
Trent Lott was elected Minority Whip by the Senate Republicans. My question is why? It’s not like Lott’s leadership of the Senate four years ago was some sort of golden age.
While I would have prefered OK Senator Tom Coburn as Minority Le…
November 16th, 2006 at 2:25 am
Politics, Politics…
So, Trent Lott is back in a leadership role in the Senate, this time as minority whip. This has a lot of folks on the right side of the 'sphere a bit upset. Since a lot of them (this was before my time) had rather a lot to do with Lott lo…
November 16th, 2006 at 6:24 am
Martinez heading the RNC and poo-poo-ing real immigration reform is the much, much bigger issue. But, I admit, this is some great icing on the “minority-forever” cake!
Think about third parties. Just think about it.
November 16th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
GOP is being as clear as crystal..they don’t want conservatives -messing up the house or senate..Bush is leading this charge..anyone waking up yet? There are no political parties at the national level just power grabs by a group lead by the globalist cabal..I know put my tinfoil hat on..Years ago I would reply the same but I can no longer ignore the facts before us all ..open borders, the mexican /canadian/USA push for a North American Market ala EU, free trade with the loss of jobs and industry from the rust belt and a GOP lead congress that expanded gov and our debt,, well those that don’t see it now-never will - keep the coolaid coming.