Washington – Four years after his racially incendiary remarks forced him to step down as Senate Republican leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi was born again politically Wednesday, winning the second-ranking post of Republican whip.
As expected, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was chosen unanimously for the top job of Senate minority leader, beginning in January.
The new Senate GOP leadership team represents a return to pragmatism. They’re seasoned GOP parliamentarians who are expected to cross party lines and buck the White House more often than did retiring Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who concentrated more on pleasing the president and the Republican Party base that’s key to his presidential hopes for 2008.
McConnell and Lott are Senate traditionalists, and while both are conservative partisans, they also know how to cut deals to get things done.
“I can work with Mitch,” said the next Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev., who praised McConnell’s understanding of how the Senate operates. Reid’s deputy, Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, said dealing with McConnell would be a “double-edged sword” because as much as McConnell might see the benefits of cooperation, he also would be skilled at obstruction when he chose.
In an interview, Lott said it was “very likely” that Republicans would join Democrats in increasing the minimum wage if it could be packaged with incentives for businesses. “I have a pragmatist side to me and I’m also a populist. I have a blue- collar, working-class family background, and that feeling wells up in me sometimes.”
The next big congressional leadership showdown comes today. House Democrats will select their No. 2 leader for the next Congress, when they’ll be in the majority for the first time since 1994.
The contest pits the popular moderate Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland against Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, who led Democrats in questioning the Iraq war over the past year and has the support of the incoming House speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
