Trent Lott: Bill Frist, Geo. Bush, Colin Powell - caused my downfall ... lmbao
- Thread starter QueEx
- Start date
Oh this is great.
"Dissent" in the ranks...
"Dissent" in the ranks...
Lott says in new book Frist betrayed him;
Frist won't take bait
Frist won't take bait
By Richard Locker
The Commercial Appeal
August 19, 2005
NASHVILLE – U. S. Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee declined to be drawn into a verbal joust Friday with fellow Republican Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, who accuses him in a new book of "personal betrayal" when he challenged him for Senate majority leader in 2002.
Speaking in Nashville during his first visit home since excerpts of Lott’s new memoir were released this week, Frist said he had no response to Lott’s book, had not read it and still considers him a close personal friend.
"No, I work every day with Trent Lott. He’s a very close personal friend and family friend. I have not even read the remarks he wrote. I can tell you he is an effective United States senator. He serves the people of Mississippi very well, in a very constructive way.
"He’s been very helpful to me as I have served as leader as we have addressed issues surrounding aviation, the budget and most recently the highway bill, and I look forward to working with him in that same vein as we address other issues that come before America," Frist said.
Frist, a former Nashville heart surgeon elected to the Senate in 1994, replaced Lott as Senate Republican leader in December 2002 amid a political firestorm over what were perceived as racially insensitive remarks by Lott at a 100th birthday party for then-Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. Lott said the nation "wouldn't have had all these problems over the years" if it had elected Thurmond president in 1948, when he was the Dixiecrat candidate running on a segregationist platform.
But Lott says in the book that the remarks were off the cuff and just a way to honor the aging senator, adding that he often kidded him by telling him he would have made a great president.
He wrote that he would have been able to weather the storm and remain majority leader if Frist had not challenged him. After days of controversy, Lott agreed to step down as leader Dec. 20, 2002, and Frist was elected to succeed him.
Lott’s book, "Herding Cats: A Life in Politics," is to be released Tuesday but in excerpts released this week, Lott wrote, "I consider Frist's power grab a personal betrayal. When he entered the Senate in 1995, I had taken him under my wing.... He was my protege and I helped him get plum assignments and committee positions
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/midsouth_news/article/0,1426,MCA_1497_4014821,00.html
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Lott toned down critical language in memoir
Before Book Went to Press
USA Today
By Ana Radelat, Gannett News Service
August 19, 2005
WASHINGTON — Sen. Trent Lott's new tell-all memoir was even more critical of some of his colleagues and the media before it was sent to the presses.
Herding Cats: A Life in Politics details the political rise of a Mississippian who started his life in sharecropper housing that lacked indoor plumbing and went on to become a confidential consultant to presidents and one of the most powerful men on Capitol Hill.
In his book, Lott is unsparingly candid in sizing up colleagues he felt had betrayed him. That is especially true when he recalls the actions of Republican Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee during the dark days of December 2002.
Those days followed racially insensitive comments that Lott made at a birthday party for former Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina — remarks that cost Lott his post as Senate Republican leader. He is also critical of the media, whom he called "vultures" and other derogatory terms.
Earlier drafts of his book were even more scathing.
In the final draft of his book, provided to Gannett News Service by Regan Books, a division of HarperCollins, Lott complains that Frist "didn't even have the guts to call and tell me personally" that he was going to run to unseat Lott as Senate Republican leader.
In the book, which will hit the stores Tuesday, the word "guts" was changed to "courtesy."
There were other changes, too.
In the final draft, Lott wrote that he told former presidential adviser Dick Morris that he was willing to work on welfare reform with President Bill Clinton but told Morris, referring to first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, "I want nothing to do with her. Keep her away from me."
Lott's comments are more gentlemanly in the published version of the book, in which he recalls telling Morris, "But I don't want to deal with the first lady."
In both versions, Morris laughs and says, "Don't worry, I'll handle her."
Lott also eliminated at least one reference to reporters before the book was published. A reference to "news gypsies" — the reporters who staked out Lott's home in Pascagoula, Miss., following his Thurmond-related comments — was changed to "news media."
Lott's office did not return phone calls inquiring about the changes. New Orleans-based author Peter Brown, who helped Lott write the 320-page book, said through his wife Pam that a provision in his contract bars him from discussing the book.
But Pam Brown said the process of putting together the tell-all was difficult and that her husband tried to make the book as readable and candid as possible.
Lott announced before the first anniversary of his fall from power in the Senate that he planned to write a memoir, but the book took longer than either he or his publisher had thought.
Lott and Regan Books interviewed several candidates to help write the book. One of them, Washingtonian magazine editor Kim Eisler, who was interviewed four times by Lott, said the Mississippi Republican's motive for the book "seemed to be payback."
Lott will begin promoting Herding Cats this weekend on NBC's Meet the Press. Appearances on Fox's Hannity and Combs and CNN follow.
The senator also plans to have traditional book-signings during a tour of bookstores in the South that will include stops in Atlanta, Ga., Birmingham, Ala., and Jackson, Miss., said Regan Books spokesman Noelle Murrain.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-08-19-lottbook_x.htm
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wasn t frist the one who while he was handing out pencil o inner city youths at an event, after one of his aids jokingly said that he should break the points off of the pencils so that he doesn t get stabbed he replied "Yeah because we are deep in the jungle"
Sen. Trent Lott to resign
NBC News: Minority whip would leave Senate before end of the year
The sudden departure of Senate Minority
Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., may be linked to
a new post-Senate career lobbying law that
takes effect at the end of the year.
NBC News
November 26, 2007
NBC News has learned that Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the minority whip is in the midst of informing close allies that he plans to resign his senate seat before the end of the year. It's possible a formal announcement of his plans could take place as early as today.
Lott's office initially denied that he he would step down, but subsequent requests for information about his plans went unanswered.
While the exactly reason Lott is stepping down before he finishes his term is unknown, the general speculation is that a quick departure immunizes Lott against tougher restrictions in a new lobbying law that takes effect at the end of the year. That law would require Senators to wait two-years before entering the lucrative world of lobbying Congress.
Also unclear at this point is how Lott's seat would be filled. One Lott supporter said he hoped Republican Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour would appoint U.S. Representative Chip Pickerting to the post, keeping the seat in the hands of Republicans, at least in the short term.
Lott's departure would leave a vacancy in the Senate GOP Leadership. As minority whip, Lott is the party's #2, behind Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Sources tell NBC News Lott is backing Arizona's Jon Kyl to replace him in the party leadership, but that would be determined by secret ballot within the Republican caucus.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21973397/
