WP, Paul Kane: Lott and McConnell: United They Stand?
Can the two Senate GOP leaders let bygones be bygones? Above Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, right, gestures during a Jan. 9 news conference. Republican whip Trent Lott looks on at left. (AP Photo)
It was a double-date rife with political and legislative implications for the 110th Congress. The Senate's top Republicans, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Minority Whip Trent Lott (Miss.), went to dinner with their wives early this month at a posh downtown D.C. restaurant.
Ostensibly just some old-fashioned bonding, the dinner is described in some congressional quarters as an attempt to repair a damaged relationship. After Lott lost the Senate majority leader's job in 2002, McConnell quickly fell in line as the loyal whip to Lott's replacement, now-retired Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.)....
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Senate Republicans and their top aides are anxiously watching the McConnell-Lott relationship for signs of friction, with some concerned that a fractured leadership team could allow Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the new majority leader, to run rough-shod over Republicans. In a new world order that has Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) bulldozing her agenda through the House, the Senate and its parliamentary dilatory tactics have become the last line of Republican defense -- other than the veto pen that President Bush has so far been reticent to use.
For now, Lott has publicly stated his fealty to McConnell, saying he will stick strictly to the Whip's role of being top vote counter in the chamber....
But hard feelings may linger. Lott, who lost the leadership job in late 2002 after making racially insensitive remarks at a tribute for Sen. Strom Thurmond, was openly critical of his successor's handling of the job. While Lott's criticisms were often viewed as payback for Frist's perceived treachery, they were just as easily interpreted by McConnell as sharp jabs at his own leadership role, given that McConnell and Frist worked hand in hand on every major issue that came up in Frist's four-year reign....
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2007/01/lott_and_mcconnell_united_they.html#more