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Sources: GOP Sens. to Meet on Lott's Fate
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By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans will meet early next month to settle the fate of Sen. Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record) as party leader in the wake of a racially charged controversy, GOP sources said Monday.


The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the meeting would be called for Jan. 6, the day before the Senate convenes for a new session under Republican control.


WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans will meet early next month to settle the fate of Sen. Trent Lott as party leader in the wake of a racially charged controversy, GOP sources said Monday.


The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the meeting would be called for Jan. 6, the day before the Senate convenes for a new session under Republican control.


The decision came as White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) criticized Lott's comments anew, and a key GOP senator issued a statement that pointedly refrained from saying Lott should remain as leader.


"My Republican colleagues and I are actively engaged in deciding what is in the best interests of the Senate as an institution and the country," said Sen. Bill Frist (news, bio, voting record) of Tennessee, who chaired the GOP campaign effort over the past two years.


"I am confident a consensus will emerge, but no decisions have been made yet," Frist said, "and I have endorsed no specific proposal at this time."


For his part, Lott spent the day preparing for an appearance on Black Entertainment Television, part of an effort to overcome controversy stemming from racially comments he made at Sen. Strom Thurmond (news, bio, voting record)'s 100th birthday party earlier this month.


Lott said Mississippians were proud to have supported Thurmond for president when he ran as a segregationist in 1948. "And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either," he said.


The Mississippi Republican has since apologized repeatedly for his remarks, but the original utterances set off a furor that poses a strong threat to his grip on power.