R U Serious? The NY Times??? No Spin??? :rolleyes:

The link I posted was from THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMM. not an article that is from a liberal or conservative viewpoint. ITS FROM THE DEMOCRATS THEMSELVES!!!!


It is good to see different viewpoints in this discussion though. Is anyone else on this board a Poli Sci major?

I should have been clearer. The NYTimes has not, in my experience, been a pro-republican paper. I am not saying they don't spin, but they don't spin PRO-REPUBLICAN. They would not be ones to give them any "credit" for denouncing Lott.

Anyway we all know the man is racist. Not because of this dumb comment from a party that was clearly only meant to flatter Strom Thurmond (saying he'd have been a better president) but because of his record. He has been expressing racist views or supporting those who do for YEARS. I mean at least Strom has a black daughter, right? lol.

Re: uh-ohhhh!
 

This is an old listing. So Lott is #2 in line.


"Prior to the ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967, there was no provision for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency. When a president died in office, the vice president succeeded him, and the vice presidency then remained vacant. The first vice president to take office under the new procedure was Gerald Ford, who was nominated by Nixon on Oct. 12, 1973, and confirmed by Congress the following Dec. 6.

The Vice President Richard Cheney
Speaker of the House John Dennis Hastert
President pro tempore of the Senate1 Robert Byrd
Secretary of State Colin Powell
Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
Attorney General John Ashcroft
Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton
Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman
Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao
Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Melquiades Rafael Martinez
Secretary of Transportation Norman Yoshiro Mineta
Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham
Secretary of Education Roderick Paige
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi
NOTE: An official cannot succeed to the Presidency unless that person meets the Constitutional requirements.
1. The president pro tempore presides over the Senate when the vice president is absent. By tradition the position is held by the senior member of the majority party."

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101032.html

Bush Won't Intervene to Save Lott's Job
 

Bush Won't Intervene to Save Lott's Job
Tue Dec 17, 4:44 PM ET Add Politics - U. S. Congress to My Yahoo!


By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Sen. Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record) says he "made a terrible mistake" in praising Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential candidacy, but the controversy continues amid indications from White House advisers that President Bush (news - web sites) won't try to save Lott's job.

The White House position could seal Lott's fate because a number of GOP senators are expressing concerns that the Mississippi senator is a liability to their agenda in Congress and to Bush's re-election. Tuesday afternoon, Bush maintained the silence he has kept on the matter since Thursday, waving off a reporter's question about whether Lott could still lead effectively.


The Senate GOP set a Jan. 6 meeting on Monday to decide whether Lott should remain majority leader.


Meanwhile, Bush met at the White House Tuesday with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, proceeding without Lott to plan for the 2003 congressional agenda. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said Lott, at home in Mississippi, was not excluded for any political reason. "For us to talk with anybody from the Senate, they need to be in Washington," Fleischer said.


As for the date set to decide Lott's fate, Fleischer made clear that Bush will not intervene either for or against Lott. "The White House will not comment on that meeting or anything leading up to that meeting vis-a-vis anything these senators may or may not do or call for at a potential meeting," Fleischer said.


Trying to salvage his political career, Lott reached out Monday to the community he now admits he wounded, and promised black Americans that minorities could benefit from his continued leadership.


"I accept the fact that I made a terrible mistake, used horrible words, caused hurt," Lott, R-Miss., said during a 30-minute interview with Black Entertainment Television. "But it is about actions more than words. As majority leader I can move an agenda that would hopefully be helpful to African Americans and minorities of all kinds and all Americans."


Lott has been trying to atone for his Dec. 5 toast to centenarian Sen. Strom Thurmond (news, bio, voting record), when he publicly wished that Thurmond had been elected president in 1948. Mississippi voted for Thurmond, Lott recalled, "and if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either."


Thurmond's third-party platform in 1948 was almost wholly segregationist, upholding bans on multiracial marriages and the defense of the South from "anti-lynching" reforms.


White House officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Monday that Bush would not try to save Lott's job.


Bush's political advisers say they are highly disappointed with Lott's explanations, but say they had been ordered by the president not to take any overt or covert action against the Mississippi Republican.


Sen. Don Nickles (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla., Lott's longtime rival within the GOP leadership, was the first Republican to break ranks over the weekend and call for new leadership elections, and there were fresh signs of Lott's political weakness Monday. The Republican National Committee (news - web sites) maintained its silence about the controversy, and the White House issued its sharpest rebuke yet.


Fleischer said Lott's remarks about Thurmond's presidential bid were "offensive and repugnant." At the same time, Fleischer repeated on Tuesday, ""Again, the president thinks there's no need for him (Lott) to resign."


Some colleagues rallied behind Lott. Incoming GOP whip Sen. Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record), R-Ky., repeated his support for Lott on Monday, saying he hoped "this issue is resolved quickly so we can move forward together to advance the president's agenda."


Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record), R-N.H., called the remarks "exceptionally inappropriate" but said they should be placed in context with what he called Lott's otherwise sterling record.


In addition to Nickles, Sen. Bill Frist (news, bio, voting record), R-Tenn., has also gained prominence in recent months, following a successful stint as chairman of the senatorial campaign committee.


"My Republican colleagues and I are actively engaged in deciding what is in the best interest of the Senate as an institution and the country," Frist said in a statement. "I am confident a consensus will emerge, but no decisions have been made yet."


Lott's reputation suffered as much from his toast — which he said was offhand — as it did from the subsequent analysis of his political record, which showed resolved opposition to causes dear to the civil rights community.

In his fourth apology to date, Lott scrambled to show he was a changed man. He announced that he now supports making Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday — having voted against it on the Senate floor — and said he supports affirmative action.

"I'm for affirmative action and I've practiced it," he said. "I've had African Americans on my staff and other minorities, but particularly African Americans, since the mid-1970s."

Lott also said had spoken with Rep. John Lewis (news, bio, voting record), D-Ga., about setting up a task force on reconciliation and with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, about setting up an African-American summit.

Lewis, a veteran civil rights leader, said Lott appeared "sincere." "I'd like to come down on his side, giving him a chance," Lewis said.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Has Condoleeza or Colin commented?

So, the order is Bush, Cheney, then Lott?

Semantically I was wrong, but right. :D :p

Thanks! I tell ya, it's been dayum near a decade! :D

HC they (the media) now call Condoleeza "Condi"? :rolleyes:
HC that's almost as worse as calling Lawrence Fishbourne "Larry"?

:rolleyes:

Condi and Colin have not publically commented on the Lott matter.

AKA2D,

No, Lott is not in line for the Presidency at all. He would be majority leader in the Senate. After Cheney is Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Dennis Hastert, followed by
President pro tempore of the Senate1 Robert Byrd and Secretary of State Colin Powell, so on and so forth (see Suggles12's post.) Hope that clears it up.

For anyone who wants to read the law for themselves, it is the RPesidential Succession Act of 1947, codified at UNITED STATES CODE , TITLE 3 - THE PRESIDENT , CHAPTER 1 - PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AND VACANCIES (see http://www.luminet.net/~tgort/success.htm)


Sisiterly,
Kimmie1913

I'm not surprised that they haven't made public comment on the matter.

Thank ya much ma'am. :D

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott appeared on BET on Monday to apologize for controversial remarks that many have deemed racist, but some in the hip-hop world are saying the gesture just isn't enough.

"I don't want to get this into a position of making excuses," Lott told BET's Ed Gordon. "I accept the fact that I made a terrible mistake, used horrible words, caused hurt. I'm sorry about that. I've apologized for it. I've asked for forgiveness. And I'm going to continue to do that."

Lott — who had suggested that the nation would've been better off had Sen. Strom Thurmond won the presidency in 1948 while running on a segregationist platform — called his earlier comments "repugnant" and "inexcusable." As for his 1983 vote against making Martin Luther King's birthday a federal holiday, Lott called that "a mistake."

Rap impresario Russell Simmons, chair of the Hip-Hop Action Network, was among those who found little solace in Lott's apology. "President Bush should take immediate action to stop Trent Lott from being the Senate majority leader," he said in a statement. "Lott's comments expose deep-seated racial prejudice, and our nation deserves better quality leadership."

"It's a real big kick in the face to minorities," rapper Fat Joe said. "You would think he would be fired :eek: ((this is not McDs!)) or would have to step down. What's real surprising to me is Bush actually endorsed him and said that he doesn't need to resign. ... Apologizing means nothing when that's what you truly feel in your heart. If you truly feel that you're down with the Confederate flag, down with segregation."

The White House has said the president believes Lott's apology was sufficient. "He has apologized, and rightly so," an administration spokesperson said.

Talib Kweli, meanwhile, said the flap over Lott's remarks is just a distraction from the bigger issue. "If you thought that Trent Lott wasn't a racist or wasn't a prejudiced person, you're just a fool. Everything in his political record points to that. The issue is not whether or not he's racist — that's obvious. The issue is that he got caught saying it. No one's asking him to recant his beliefs, no one is shocked about what he said. I think people are shocked that he allowed himself to get caught. I think his apology is not for what he said, I think he's apologizing because he realized he's a fool for getting caught.

"That's the illusion of politics," Kweli continued, "that somehow [once] you put laws on the books, that people change. No, as you see, in private quarters, people are going to say what they want to say. I don't know why people are shocked by it. I don't know what it means for him to apologize, or for him to resign. Who are they going to put in there when he resigns? It's going to be somebody with the same attitude, somebody who's just smart enough to play the politics of it better."

Calling for Lott to resign, Kweli said, doesn't do much to destroy institutionalized racism, which can only be eliminated if people work on a grass-roots level.

"I would like to see more people get involved in community organizations and get involved in work that directly affects people's lives," he said, "instead of trying to put laws on the lawbooks. I would like to see more activism on that level. That's where a Dr. King comes from. That's where a Malcolm X comes from. That's where the real power comes from."

Republican senators will meet January 6 to decide on Lott's future as majority leader.

This report is from MTV News.

I saw on Good Morning America this morning that yesterday Colin stated that he found Lott's comments to be inappropriate. Regarding whether or not Lott should stay Senate Maj. Leader, Colin stated that the decision should be left up to the Senate.

I'll try and find Colin's exact words and post them.

A native Mississippian's POV...
 

Well, Most Mississippians know that Trent Lott is not for Black people and their issues and his record shows this from his good ol' boy days at Ole Miss. Oddly, he does have an overwhelming number of Blacks who support him I'm told. (although, I find that hard to believe...:rolleyes: ) Lott's TRUE views and ideas surfaced when he thought he was in the comfort of other persons who he felt had the same views as he. Basically, in his effort to "fit in" and gain brownie points, he only stated what he truly felt for years. Remember, he was apart of the effort in his college days to keep his fraternity segregated. IMO, he's making a poor attempt to apologize to salvage his career. So Mr. Lott, why bother?
I liked what one columnist said about the BET interview..."if (Ed) he had asked for a car loan he would have given it to him." lol

What really hurts me is that this incident makes it hard for Mississippians to shed its (constantly mentioned) image of its past. We are sick and tired of being labeled and associated with KKK, being "country", segregated, etc. simply because we are "down south". Now obviously, racism does not exist solely in MS; however, comments like these from one "leader" in this state overwhelm the tremendous growth that has been made over the years. Sorry, I digressed.

Gracias. Although I have respect for Gen. Powell, he hasn't exactly been the most forceful person on certain civil rights issues.

That's exactly what appeals to many white Americans about the man. He is just a POLITICIAN, he isn't a civil rights activist. Because he is black, people expect (or want) him to be. He isn't, plain and simple. Through the years, white women have been able to make the transition from "women's right activist" to "politician", but for some reason, it isn't cool for black folks to do this. I find that odd because our movement for equality began before theirs! I don't think we should be looking for "Condi" and Colin to comment on this issue. :rolleyes: They don't want to reapt what everyone else has already said, and they don't want to be viewed as militant black activists.

Yeah, Powell is already not a favorite of the extreme element within that party (those who actually vote in the primaries). I think Condoleeza(sp?) is more to their taste because she's firmly anti-communist. :p