Lott To Resign, Effective Sometime Before Jan. 1, 2008

In a surprising announcement, Mississippi senator Trent Lott, the No.2 Republican in the Senate, will resign his position as a U.S senator, effective sometime before Jan. 1, 2008.

Lott was just re-elected in 2006, meaning his term would have run through 2012. Reports indicate that Lott is resigning for no other reason than to pursue other opportunities. It is natural to speculate that Lott is interested in becoming a Washington lobbyist. New Senate ethics rules effective Jan. 1, 2008 require retiring senators to undergo a two-year "cooling off period" before returning to Washington as a lobbyist. The current Senate rule requires only a one-year hiatus. Is it reasonable to speculate that this change of law had an effect on his decision to resign before the dawn of the new year.

One-time majority leader of the Senate, Lott engineered his own demise by remarking at a Strom Thurmond 100th-birthday tribute that, "If the rest of the country had followed [Strom's] lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either."

Thurmond opposed civil rights advances for minorities in the segregated South during his years as a senator from South Carolina and as a 1948 segregationist candidate for president. Lott boasted that his state voted for Thurmond that year.

Yet, Lott bounced back in 2006 by capturing the minority whip position, elevating him to the No. 2 Republican spot in the Senate. Lott's fellow senators elected him to this position, preferring him to Lamar Alexander (TN).

Lott would be the first to tell you, though, that he doesn't very much like playing second fiddle.

Perhaps Lott has found a better means than the U.S. Senate to address post-Katrina problems in his home state. Lott was angered by the White House's pathetic response to the disaster that ruined a large portion of his state, not to mention his own vacation home in Pascagoula.

Mississippi governor Haley Barbour will appoint a replacement for Lott. That interim senator will have to face re-election in November 2008 at the latest. There is currently a movement underway in Mississippi to interpret the law as requiring that an interim senator face a special election within 90 days of appointment.

The Republicans in the Senate will further have to elect a new minority whip. It appears that Jon Kyl (AZ) has got that spot locked up. Kyl's rise to No. 2 in the minority leaves a vacancy in the No. 3 spot, chair of the Republican senate conference. Senators interested in nabbing that vacancy include Richard Burr (NC) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX).