Life After Lott
BARNES, FRED
Life After Lott A merry Christmas for the GOP. BY FRED BARNES Republicans approach 2003 with the embarrassing Trent Lott flap over, the most attractive and genial Republican senator, Bill Frist,...
...So, post-Lott, Republicans are filled with optimism for 2003...
...Democrats look desperate and self-destructive...
...Things may not work out perfectly for conservatives in terms of substance, but the emergence of Frist is great pR for Republicans...
...He is a great story all by himself, a heart doctor who volunteers his time for surgery in Africa and wrote a book about combating anthrax and other biological weapons...
...The charge is both unprovable and implausible...
...Outside and Mr...
...For two weeks, the Lott controversy looked as if it would bedevil Republicans for months or years...
...Hav- ^H^T ing lost the November 5 election on the national ^^Bfl security issue, Democrats are now playing the race card, but in a way that's likely to hurt only themselves...
...True, he's a moderate conservative with a pragmatic streak, just like Bush...
...And just when a soft landing from the flap seemed impossible, it happened with the ascension of Frist...
...Who was she talking about...
...With the retirement of Thurmond and Sen...
...Democrats are merely bitter...
...Along with McConnell, the number three and four members in the leadership, Rick Santorum and John Kyl, are among the smartest conservatives in the Senate...
...In fact, he represents the triumph of Bushism: a compassionate conservative in command of the Senate, or, put another way, conservatism with a happy face...
...Inside, the good cop and the bad cop...
...It's lk• pure race-baiting, crude and untrue...
...For two weeks, Republicans had been on the defensive...
...And he emphasizes domestic issues such as health care...
...But once it was clear he couldn't last as majority leader, his friends and allies—especially McConnell—quickly nudged him toward quitting...
...turned on Iraq...
...Lott refused to quit and his apologies helped very little...
...What Lott had said publicly, Sen...
...Jesse Helms, the GOp has very few Dixiecrats left in the party...
...Even Hans ^A^MH Blix, the squishy arms SJ iry inspector, and the Wm HI French ambassador to V* the U.N...
...Not only did the Lott affair end well with the senator's decision to step down, but Saddam Hussein played into America's hands by M submitting a palpably , V fraudulent inventory of tl . 1 his weapons to the Unit-LU ed Nations...
...In campaigns, they say, Republicans use clever code words and issues, like retaining the Confederate flag, that are proxies for racism...
...Lott and his whip, Don Nickles, didn't get along and it showed...
...Does anyone believe this about the 2002 Republican Senate candidates, say Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina or Lindsey Graham in South Carolina or Lamar Alexander in Tennessee or John Cornyn in Texas...
...It's Denny Hastert and Tom DeLay all over again, Mr...
...Democrats had a lot to capitalize on...
...Republicans may be lucky, for a change...
...They tried to exploit the Lott case to tar all Republicans as racists...
...Yet Democrats would have the nation believe Republicans are racists at heart, only adept at covering it up...
...She didn't say...
...president Bush was forced to dump his economic team, the GOP lost the Louisiana Senate race plus a Republican House seat, Saddam Hussein was winning the public relations war with Bush by welcoming arms inspectors, and Lott made an extraordinary mistake by going public with a private pleasantry between him and retiring senator Strom Thurmond suggesting nostalFred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...gia for segregation...
...Which Republicans...
...Meanwhile, Democrats, led by the Clintons and their con-sigliere, Democratic chairman Terry Mc Auliffe, enter the New Year issuing absurd and demagogic charges about how tv^Ej^V Republicans use race k. \ \ to win elections...
...Who'd have guessed that Republicans would be up, Democrats down...
...Not a chance...
...Quite suddenly Republicans have an unusually capable leadership team in the Senate...
...Republican senators wisely rushed to crown him before Christmas...
...BY FRED BARNES Republicans approach 2003 with the embarrassing Trent Lott flap over, the most attractive and genial Republican senator, Bill Frist, installed as the new senate majority leader, and his tough and shrewd conservative colleague Mitch McConnell as the majority whip...
...Hillary Clinton declared, other Republicans mutter privately...
...Conservatives have reason to worry about Frist's ideological commitment, but not much...
...Frist is likely to work smoothly with McConnell, who graciously endorsed him for leader rather than challenge him in a contest that would have lingered over the holidays...
...Frist is also popular with the media (at least until he makes a few conservative decisions as majority leader...
Vol. 8 • December 2002 • No. 16
