Lame-Duck Lott Does Trent Lott have a neutral zone around his head? Just three days after an historic mid-term election in which voters gave Bush and the Republicans a thumbs-up and gave Democrats the middle finger, Senate Republican leader Trent Lott pissed-and-moaned about the president's demand that the Senate work during a lame-duck session on anti-terrorism legislation.
The AP quoted Lott as saying "that he is 'not an advocate of lame-duck sessions . . . I've never seen one that served the American people well, and I've been through a lot of them." And this guy is a
leader??? No one in Washington is as adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory as Trent "Let's Share Power With The Democrats" Lott.
It's true that Trent has been through a lot of lame-duck sessions. It's also true that during most of those lame-duck sessions, Republicans were in the minority. And now, when our country is at war and Republicans are presented with a crystal-clear mandate by voters to prosecute that war, Lott wants to take a powder.
Four questions for Trent:
1) Do nations which hire Islamist mercenaries to kill Americans take a vacation during congressional lame-duck sessions?
2) How is it that Americans aren't served well by lame-duck sessions, especially when the issue at hand is a matter of life and death?
3) Is the Congress somehow relieved of some of its authority and obligations in the intervening months between an election and a new Congress?
4) How much hairspray do you use each month?
Trent Lott is one of those congressional Republicans who has an ingrained minority party mentality. Think of it as a political version of the
Stockholm Syndrome. After having spent so much time in the minority while serving in House and the Senate, Lott reflexively behaves as a submissive, make-no-waves minority leader -- even when he's the majority leader!
Last Tuesday marked a new era for the Republican Party. That new era requires effective leadership; and that's something Trent Lott is incapable of providing in the Senate. This January, President Bush and Senate Republicans would do well to find themselves a Senate majority leader willing and capable of boldly advancing the Republican agenda. And to soften the blow, perhaps they can give Trent a lovely parting gift....such as a case of Dippity-Do.
