Senator Trent Lott expects to be majority
leader of the Senate in January 2007, if not sooner, according to a
Rules Committee staffer. Lott, who chairs that committee, has been
using his chairmanship as the launching pad for the political
comeback, most recently in his back door attempt to broker a
non-nuclear-option-proliferation agreement with Democrats.
“Different things motivate different people,” says the Rules
staffer. “In the case of Lott, it’s anger over the way he was
treated by both his fellow Republicans and the media after the
Strom Thurmond dustup. He wants his old job back, and he wants to
see the look on the faces of people like President Bush and Sen.
George Allen when he gets it back.”
Lott is known to harbor resentment toward both the President and
Allen. The onetime leader believes the former pulled his support
for him during the Thurmond kerfuffle; the latter worked behind the
scenes against Lott to push the candidacy of Sen. Bill
Frist for the leadership post.
Currently, Lott has been exchanging e-mails with Democratic Sen.
Ben Nelson, a moderate to conservative from
Nebraska, who is not seeking re-election in 2006. Nelson has been
viewed by Republicans as critical to gaining simple majority votes
on some Bush judicial and political nominees should Republicans
successfully put in place a parliamentary procedure that prevents a
Democratic filibuster on judicial nominees.
“Assuming we lose a couple of Republican votes after we make the
switch, a guy like Nelson would be important to have on our side,”
says a Senate Republican staffer.
Words of Lott’s attempting to negotiate around his leadership
has been circulating on Capitol Hill for several weeks. When
Republican colleagues approached Lott about the gossip, he
downplayed it, saying that Nelson had approached him and that he
had not initiated the discussions.
Lott staffers on Monday were encouraging leaks to Capitol papers
that Lott was close to a deal with Nelson, and five other
Republicans and five additional Democrats, that would involve the
dozen pols signing a memorandum of understanding to resolve the
judicial filibuster impasse.
“The deal is basically structured this way,” says a Senate
staffer familiar with the negotiations. “The Republicans are
promising to block the nuclear option, and the Dems are promising
to vote for four of the seven federal court nominees who are
currently being held back. The other three would remain
blocked.”
The three held over from the 108th Congress who would remain
filibustered are believed to be Bill Pryor,
Priscilla Owen, and Janice Rogers
Brown. (If so, what stigma would attach itself to Lott
this time for his unwillingness to fight for Justice Brown, an
African American?)
As well, Nelson and his fellow Democrats would promise to vote
for cloture to end filibuster attempts on all other Bush judicial
nominees, including Supreme Court picks.
Late Monday, Lott staffers were desperately trying to tamp down
talk of their boss’s dealmaking. In one conversation, a Lott
staffer insisted that Lott did not have the five additional
Republicans needed to swing a deal. Nelson, however, was telling
others in the Senate that he did have at least five other Democrats
to back his and Lott’s proposal, though he confirmed that Lott did
not have the five Republican votes. If the two men are able to
broker a deal, it will deal a blow to Frist and other conservatives
in the Senate who have been able to hold the so-called “nuclear
option” over the head of Democrats for weeks.
“What’s troublesome to some of us is that Lott and his
Republican cohorts would willingly take four judges and sell
another three down the river,” said a Senate GOP leadership
staffer, who spoke earlier Monday before Lott and his staff began
backpedaling. “We’ve been fighting to get all of them a vote and to
get them on the bench. Then our own turn around and cut the legs
out from underneath us.”
According to Senate insiders, Lott has lately been walking
around the Capitol like the cat who devoured the canary. Not only
is he creating headaches for Republican leaders and the White
House, he is doing it in a way that would place him firmly in the
middle of the biggest legislative fight to come along in years.
“Lott doesn’t care about the nominees that are being
filibustered,” says the leadership staffer. “He cares about being
able to crow about getting the President and Senate leaders
clearance for the Supreme Court nominees. All of a sudden he has
brokered a deal that current leadership on either side was unable
to broker. He’d be insufferable.”
And he’d be in a great position to attempt to take back his
leadership position if Bill Frist does retire after the 2006
election cycle. Lott has made it clear he wants to get back into
leadership in the worst way, though undercutting conservatives to
broker a deal with moderates may not be the best way to show he
still has juice.
