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American Morning

Discussing Senator Lott Saga

Aired December 18, 2002 - 09:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Last yesterday, Senator Lott gaining the support of some of his key allies in the Senate, and the protest, though, and the criticism, though, do persist in other corners, as does something perhaps even more damaging. Many top Republicans, including the president, appear to be staying on the sidelines as Lott battles it out for his position in the Senate. January 6th, again, is the date on the calendar where they are going to meet in Washington and talk about it.
We talk about it this morning with a senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield, who has a look now at the senator's future.

Good morning to you.

What are you sizing up today? What's your take?

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: I'm wondering how this timing is going to work out. You know, it's a very long time between now and January 6th, and I'm trying to figure out, is that going to be helpful to Senator Lott? Maybe something else makes headlines. Maybe this goes away. Maybe, as we talked about yesterday, and you heard earlier today, maybe some of the Republicans in this Senate get a little resentful that the White House is pushing them around. Remember we talked about the fact that Senators really don't like any senator...

HEMMER: And we heard that pronounced yesterday.

GREENFIELD: But the skids are being greased so heavily, by all the Republicans, by the White House. The idea that the president brings in the speaker of the house to talk about the legislative agenda and the incoming, presumably Republican leader of the Senate is pointedly exclude from that? I mean, these signals are known by anyone that's ever hung out in Washington what they mean. That means the White House wants this guy out. Does Lott benefit, as we raised yesterday, from the possible backlash by Republican senators saying, stop it, you're not going to tell us what we're up to.

HEMMER: I want to roll this clip from 2000 that was discovered recently. This contributes -- let's roll it, and then we'll talk about it. This is Trent Lott from the year 2000 with Strom Thurmond.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRENT LOTT (R-MI), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Now this is a famous signature right here. Should have been president in 1947.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HEMMER: The problem a lot of people see apparently if you listen to them is that there is a constant drip, drip, drip of this story. It wasn't one statement that went away, but it's a few others that kept coming up.

GREENFIELD: And if that, by the way, was all he said at the birthday party, we wouldn't be here talking about it. First of all, it shows that senator is a little weak on his election-year calendar. I mean, 1948 was the year, but he didn't leak it to -- I understand, it's pedantry, I admit it. He also couldn't remember who Truman beat in 1948. You know, Dewey, defeats Truman.

Anyway, the more serious point is on that in that little offhand comment, no one would have picked it up. He wasn't on camera, and he wasn't proudly boasting to the fact that his home state of Mississippi voted for him, and we wouldn't have had these problems.

But in the context of a crisis, if that's what this, is or a political crisis, you are quite right, Bill, now that anything anybody can find adds to the weight of it. And even if it's piling on, can he do his job effectively? I also thought really interesting, two prominent conservatives today, one in the "Wall Street Journal," Shelby Steele (ph), one of the best known African-American conservatives, and Abigail Thornstrom (ph), who is a member of the Civil Rights Commission, who have for years have argued the liberal solutions to black issues are wrong, they hurt blacks, and who've been arguing for an alternative type of program, vouchers, empowerment zones and interracial preferences, they both have flown up their hands in despair and said, what Senator Lott is now doing is forcing himself, as he did on Black Entertainment Television, to practically embrace the traditional liberal civil rights remedies -- affirmative action. Somebody cracked next he'll be for reparations.

And that's why conservatives are having a difficult time defending him, because he seems, in their view, to have undermined their argument that the Congressional Black Caucus, and that liberal solutions to race issues have no longer worked.

HEMMER: It appears a day and a half later that the BET performance in the interview that was conducted with Ed Gordon backfired more than anything. I mean, did he really think that he could go on that network and that television and really convince people that he was a changed man? At least to the audience listening to him, they did not buy it.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Or more importantly, not a waffler, which seemed to be -- at least based on folks we have interviewed on the show, the overwhelming perception.

GREENFIELD: There is a tone-deafness problem here, and what's surprising is that Trent Lott came to the Congress after the civil rights fight was over. He wasn't there when the major bills were passed. He came into the House in 1972.

And yet, there's a famous routine Lenny Bruce did years ago about the liberal at the cocktail party meeting a black person and not knowing how to talk to him and sort of stumbling through, like, Joe Louis was a hell of a fighter, you have to play the black and white keys to play the "Star Spangled Banner," and you get the sense that this is some of the clunkiness that we're hearing right now.

ZAHN: Does Trent Lott make it until January 6th?

GREENFIELD: I don't do predictions.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 18, 2002 - 09:19   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Last yesterday, Senator Lott gaining the support of some of his key allies in the Senate, and the protest, though, and the criticism, though, do persist in other corners, as does something perhaps even more damaging. Many top Republicans, including the president, appear to be staying on the sidelines as Lott battles it out for his position in the Senate. January 6th, again, is the date on the calendar where they are going to meet in Washington and talk about it.
We talk about it this morning with a senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield, who has a look now at the senator's future.

Good morning to you.

What are you sizing up today? What's your take?

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: I'm wondering how this timing is going to work out. You know, it's a very long time between now and January 6th, and I'm trying to figure out, is that going to be helpful to Senator Lott? Maybe something else makes headlines. Maybe this goes away. Maybe, as we talked about yesterday, and you heard earlier today, maybe some of the Republicans in this Senate get a little resentful that the White House is pushing them around. Remember we talked about the fact that Senators really don't like any senator...

HEMMER: And we heard that pronounced yesterday.

GREENFIELD: But the skids are being greased so heavily, by all the Republicans, by the White House. The idea that the president brings in the speaker of the house to talk about the legislative agenda and the incoming, presumably Republican leader of the Senate is pointedly exclude from that? I mean, these signals are known by anyone that's ever hung out in Washington what they mean. That means the White House wants this guy out. Does Lott benefit, as we raised yesterday, from the possible backlash by Republican senators saying, stop it, you're not going to tell us what we're up to.

HEMMER: I want to roll this clip from 2000 that was discovered recently. This contributes -- let's roll it, and then we'll talk about it. This is Trent Lott from the year 2000 with Strom Thurmond.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRENT LOTT (R-MI), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Now this is a famous signature right here. Should have been president in 1947.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HEMMER: The problem a lot of people see apparently if you listen to them is that there is a constant drip, drip, drip of this story. It wasn't one statement that went away, but it's a few others that kept coming up.

GREENFIELD: And if that, by the way, was all he said at the birthday party, we wouldn't be here talking about it. First of all, it shows that senator is a little weak on his election-year calendar. I mean, 1948 was the year, but he didn't leak it to -- I understand, it's pedantry, I admit it. He also couldn't remember who Truman beat in 1948. You know, Dewey, defeats Truman.

Anyway, the more serious point is on that in that little offhand comment, no one would have picked it up. He wasn't on camera, and he wasn't proudly boasting to the fact that his home state of Mississippi voted for him, and we wouldn't have had these problems.

But in the context of a crisis, if that's what this, is or a political crisis, you are quite right, Bill, now that anything anybody can find adds to the weight of it. And even if it's piling on, can he do his job effectively? I also thought really interesting, two prominent conservatives today, one in the "Wall Street Journal," Shelby Steele (ph), one of the best known African-American conservatives, and Abigail Thornstrom (ph), who is a member of the Civil Rights Commission, who have for years have argued the liberal solutions to black issues are wrong, they hurt blacks, and who've been arguing for an alternative type of program, vouchers, empowerment zones and interracial preferences, they both have flown up their hands in despair and said, what Senator Lott is now doing is forcing himself, as he did on Black Entertainment Television, to practically embrace the traditional liberal civil rights remedies -- affirmative action. Somebody cracked next he'll be for reparations.

And that's why conservatives are having a difficult time defending him, because he seems, in their view, to have undermined their argument that the Congressional Black Caucus, and that liberal solutions to race issues have no longer worked.

HEMMER: It appears a day and a half later that the BET performance in the interview that was conducted with Ed Gordon backfired more than anything. I mean, did he really think that he could go on that network and that television and really convince people that he was a changed man? At least to the audience listening to him, they did not buy it.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Or more importantly, not a waffler, which seemed to be -- at least based on folks we have interviewed on the show, the overwhelming perception.

GREENFIELD: There is a tone-deafness problem here, and what's surprising is that Trent Lott came to the Congress after the civil rights fight was over. He wasn't there when the major bills were passed. He came into the House in 1972.

And yet, there's a famous routine Lenny Bruce did years ago about the liberal at the cocktail party meeting a black person and not knowing how to talk to him and sort of stumbling through, like, Joe Louis was a hell of a fighter, you have to play the black and white keys to play the "Star Spangled Banner," and you get the sense that this is some of the clunkiness that we're hearing right now.

ZAHN: Does Trent Lott make it until January 6th?

GREENFIELD: I don't do predictions.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com