Lott Attacks Rove, Says ‘I’ve Had Problems With Some Of His Conduct’

[kpete]

Lott Attacks Rove, Says ‘I’ve Had Problems With Some Of His Conduct’

Earlier this month, rumors began swirling that Karl Rove may soon leave the White House, in part because he and incoming Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS) have failed to get along. The New York Times then reported that Rove would be staying on, but claimed the White House was compensating for his “limited influence in Congress.”

In an interview this morning on Fox News, Lott intensified the growing discord between he and Rove, stating, “I’ve had problems with some of the conduct of Karl Rove.” He added that he has a good relationship with “most of the people” around the President.

VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT:
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/26/lott-rove-divide/

[maseman]

1. Bullshit

They are just now distancing themselves from the losers in control. People will tie Shrub to Rove and no one in the Repuke party wants either one around in 2008.

[pscot]

2. Rove played a part

in pushing Lott out of the Senate leadership aft his Strom birthday remarks. Lott is just settling the score.

[MADem]

4. Precisely. This sentence is the frigging understatement of the CENTURY!!!

........he and incoming Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS) have failed to get along.

Rove whipped that "Strom" business into a absolute frothing frenzy, specifically to dethrone Lott. Hell, Lott went on BET and apologized. He did everything but wear a dashiki and write out the "I Have a Dream" speech a hundred times in penance. Every time the furor started to die down, and some other Black leader would go on TV and say "Well, we know what old Trent is, and we know where he came from, and he came up in a different time, but he did prostrate himself and beg our forgiveness, so we should accept the man's apology" old Karl would send some snarling shitheel Republican out there to fan those flames yet again. EVERY time it looked like Lott would struggle through with a thousand mea culpas, he got slapped back right as it looked that he was coming out of the worst of it. After interminable weeks of a story that should have lasted one week, tops, he threw in the towel. Lott was driven out by Rove, and no one else, in order to install Frist the Puppet in his stead. Frist was way too willing to be a useful tool to BushCo, while Lott has always believed in the separation of powers. He strongly supports the role of the Senate to advise and consent. That, however, got in the way of the White House agenda.

As for Trent's attitudes, the prevailing view has always been "We KNOW what he is. We know what he's ALWAYS been. It has NEVER been a secret. But so long as he brings home jobs and bucketloads of PORK that don't discriminate on the basis of race, well, who CARES? We don't want to associate any more than we have to with HIM, either!"

And that's the truth. You can see the dichotomy that is Trent in this recent article:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2006/11/post_48.html

Lott's apologies then were profuse, but the damage lingers. One reason the Thurmond remark hurt Lott so badly was because it suggested he had never really shed a past that included opposition to integrating his fraternity when he was a student at Ole Miss, or, years later, to creation of a national holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Some African-American politicians and activists are wary of cutting him much slack. "The sting of Trent Lott's hateful words (is) unlikely to expire anytime soon," says Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. The NAACP gave Lott an "F" on its 2005 congressional report card.

Yet this isn't the entire picture. Lott gets kudos from other African-Americans. "He's done a lot for Mississippi," says political activist Charles Evers, an assistant to the mayor of Jackson, Miss. "When he helps Mississippi, he helps me." Donna Brazile, a national Democratic strategist, tells how Lott helped get medical supplies to two of her Mississippi relatives after Hurricane Katrina, which wiped out Lott's own home on the Gulf Coast. "I can speak up for (that) Trent Lott," Brazile says.

Beyond constituent service, the real test for Lott is how he acts on issues of civil rights. In a state that is more than one-third black, will he promote more African-Americans for federal court vacancies? Will he stick up as much for historically black colleges as he does for Ole Miss? Will he, in general, make equality of opportunity a priority?

America is all about second chances, and Trent Lott has gotten a very big one. Now it's up to him to show he deserves it.

The vote returning Lott to the Whip job had much more to do with the GOP repudiating the heavy-handedness of the WH than it did any endorsement of Trent's racist past. I know the GOP aren't poster children when it comes to race, but that vote was more of a "Screw YOU, Karl Rove" than it was a "Hail, Whitey" declaration.

[Fovea]

3. Dubya's dilemma

He really does need the intellectual efforts and rude talents of others. Bush in an empty boot, and he needs guidance.

Secondly, Rove is not a bit player, he is a major mover, and knows everything that Dubya cannot have known.

Thirdly, I doubt there is a city in America where Karl Rove could walk 5 blocks without security and survive. Karl has no real friends who are not in jail except Grover Nosetwist and George Bush... And George is pissed.

So now the party tells him FU by returning Trent Lott to power. George cannot kick Karl to the Curb without fear that Karl will kick back. So as paranoid as this makes me sound, either ** will have to except that he is getting no love from even his own party in congress (dangerous in an investigation rich environment) or he will have to do something that solves the Rove dilemma without risk of Rove reprisals.

If you were GWB, how would you accomplish this? Perhaps Harkin Oil, or Spectrum7, or something from his Govship of Texas can inform us.

But I suspect that Bush is going to simply accept that he is the lamest of Ducks, but one with a temporary license to kill vis a vis PATRIOT and Mil Comm Act.
Can Karl be declared a terrorist? Many Dems might agree with this.

Added-- Sadly Wolfie is screwing up at the world bank. If I were George, I would replace Bolton with Karl. After all, the world already hates us.

[librechik]

5. stealing that election--and that other election--a bit over the top

at least he didn't mourn the loss of segregation. Like some have.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. K&R