Lott In Life

Trent Lott became the sixth Republican senator since last year's midterm elections to announce that he is stepping down after nearly twenty years in the United States Senate. Unlike the other five, whose seats are up for election next year, Lott holds a seat that isn't up for election until . . . 2012!

Speculation suggests that Lott is leaving early to be able to become a lobbyist before a new law goes into effect placing restrictions on members of Congress to prevent them from taking K Street jobs after leaving office.

So what was Lott's high point as a senator? Supporting Amtrak, the national passenger railroad, an issue he's been very consistent on. His low point? Everything else, including his public regret that Strom Thurmond wasn't elected President in 1948.

The Republicans are convinced that they have no chance of regaining the Senate any time soon, so many GOP senators are looking for new lines of work to make up for the committee chairmanships they've apparently lost for good. They need not worry about losing Lott's seat. Mississippi hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982, when it gave the crusty old segregationist John Stennis one more term.