WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Trent Lott must be driving the president back to the drink.
It seems the Republican Party may have been better off when Mr. Lott was the less visible minority leader. Just as conservative attack dogs finished slandering Nancy Pelosi as the second coming of Molly Ivins, Trent Lott, now the most powerful man in the U.S. Congress, has thrown some of his party's time-honored extremism back into the limelight.
Perhaps Lott's comment at Strom Thurmond's birthday party was a mere verbal gaffe on his part (a dubious claim). But the Republican Party needs to ask itself if a man with apparently no control over the words stumbling from his mouth is the best spokesman for their Senate delegation.
Truthfully, the paucity of condemnation from within the party makes you wonder if the GOP actually does think Lott is the best man to represent their ideas. Democrats may be disorganized, but at least they have the courage to criticize each other.
"I want to say this about my state," Lott said. "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it."
As you may already know, Mr. Lott was commenting on Thurmond's 1948 run for the presidency as a segregationist. It then came to light that Lott was merely reiterating the same comments he made 22 years ago, at which time he also lamented the sad fact that more American states did no follow his beloved Mississippi in supporting Thurmond's bigoted campaign for the White House.
Lott then went on to say, "If the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years." Perhaps Lott was referring to the Civil Rights Act. Regardless, his most recent outburst has shed light on Mr. Lott's poor track record on issues of discrimination.
On racial issues, his long-denied allegiance with the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (in the face of substantial evidence) has moved back into the media's focus.
But wait, there's more. Mr. Lott has also said that homosexuals have a disease, much like alcoholics, and should be treated for their "sin" in much the same manner. This is an idea that polls show is far outside the mainstream of American thought, and can be described as ignorant at best.
Bigotry aside (if it is possible to put that sort of intolerance aside), the new/old majority leader has had his share of policy gaffes as well.
Lott's first tenure as majority leader began in 1996, when the Republicans held a 55-45 advantage in the Senate. It took precisely five years and one Jim Jeffords for Trent Lott to lose that advantage (in part because he ignored Jeffords' demands and the warning signs of defection) and cast control back to the Democrats.
Jeffords' departure from the GOP caused the pre-Sept. 11 stir of the year, and took much of the political steam out of the president's victory on tax cuts.
Lott was also unable to use his party's control over the Senate to prevent Democrats from slicing $300 billion off a tax cut whose original $1.6 trillion price tag the president had labeled "just right" during the campaign. Lott must be counting his lucky stars that Mr. Bush stepped in with a heavy hand in this election cycle. Not much of a track record, is it?
Finally, Mr. Lott's heady post-election days in November brought news from the incoming majority leader that nothing ever gets done to help the American people during lame duck sessions of Congress. This flew in the face of President Bush's demand that the bill get finished during the lame duck session.
His comment brought a stern rebuke from the president and a humbled Lott standing before White House cameras with his tail between his legs saying, why of course, a Homeland Security bill would actually be no problem during a lame duck session.
Let's remember, a president who prides himself on a party that keeps itself in line just dumped a Treasury secretary who couldn't keep his mouth shut. In addition, Mr. Lott may have single-handedly undermined the president's half-hearted attempts to court minorities into a newly "compassionate" party.
Either way, if the Republicans choose to keep Mr. Lott in his leadership position, they will have no one but themselves to blame when his failures of the past repeat themselves in the future.
-- Gareth Schweitzer is a reporter with the Talk Radio News Service in Washington.
-- "Outside View" commentaries are written for UPI by outside writers who specialize in a variety of important global issues.
