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12/17/2002 Archived Entry: "oust"

REPUBLICANS PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY ON LOTT: Republican senators who would like to oust Trent Lott from the leadership are facing a delicate balance: On the one hand, since he isn't going to step down and go quietly, he will need to be voted out. On the other hand, they don't want to push him so hard that he resigns his Senate seat and allows Gov. Ronnie Musgrove to replace him with a Democrat. That would reduce the GOP to relying on Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote once again to barely hold onto the majority, except this time they would negotiate the power-sharing and reorganization from disadvantage. It could also cost Republicans the majority if Democrats are able to entice liberal Republican Sen Lincoln Chafee to swtich parties.

This is the point David Pyne raises in his ESR piece this week. Pyne is correct that the only way to do this successfully is to engineer some kind of "soft landing" by giving Lott another influential position outside of Majority Leader. (I disagree with him on whether now is the time to take swipes at John McCain, but that's another story.) If Republicans can't find a way to do this, look for Lott to remain at the helm of a GOP Senate, to the party's shame.