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CNN Sunday Morning
Nickles Calls for Lott to Step Down
Aired December 15, 2002 - 11:14 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Oklahoma Senator Nickles now joining in the call for incoming majority leader of the Senate Trent Lott to step down. Is this a significant turning point in the Lott drama?
Well, for some political and practical insight we turn to our senior political analyst Bill Schneider in Boston.
Well, Bill, you and I talked about this yesterday in terms of, you know, the drumbeats that would continue to get stronger by those joining Republicans and already we're starting to see the fallout. This is pretty significant, isn't it?
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It is significant, because this is someone who is likely to challenge Lott when the Republican majority meets in January. He is the second in line for leadership in the Senate majority, and it indicates that there's not going to be anything like acclimation to keep Senator Lott in office.
There's going to be a serious challenge, and I think a way was opened when the president made his remarks last week, which were a very harsh rebuke of Senator Lott, distancing himself from the majority leader.
WHITFIELD: Senator Nickles said, you know, he is concerned about the continued fall-out and the eroding reputation of Trent Lott.
And on that telephone call that you and I talked about yesterday that apparently a number of Republican leaders were part of, that was one of the very concerns that was apparently articulated or at least reportedly articulated, that perhaps the Democrats might have a good time in the coming term, talking about Trent Lott and his comments and how it would continue to erode the credibility and the respect of the Republican party as a whole.
SCHNEIDER: Well, that's right. Remember that Trent Lott will be the face of the Republican majority in the Senate. He's the one who will be working closely with the White House, with President Bush.
And a number of important judicial appointments are going to come up, almost certainly, possibly some Supreme Court appointments in the next two years. Many of those appointments are going to be intensely controversial. Some of them will involve civil rights issues, and any time a judicial appointee comes up whose civil rights record is in question and Senator Lott is presiding, these questions are going to come up again and again. Democrats will see to that. That, I think, more than anything else, is what has the -- what has the Republican majority worried.
WHITFIELD: What's the process if -- toward a new election, if it were to come to that for a majority leader?
SCHNEIDER: Well, I'm not sure I know all the detailed rules about the Republican Caucus, but they elect the majority leader. This is not like the speaker of the house. The speaker of the house is elected by the entire House of Representatives. The majority leader in the Senate is just that, the leader of the majority party, the 51 now Republicans in the Senate.
So they will caucus in early January. I think the date is January 8. And there is a procedure, I don't know all the rules, for selecting their leader. He can be challenged, and apparently Senator Nickles, and I would expect possibly some others, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Bill Frist of Tennessee, those names have been talked about as other potential challengers to Trent Lott.
I think this is a very healthy thing, because it enables Republicans to decide for themselves what face they want on the Republican majority to present to the country.
WHITFIELD: All right, at the plan -- the plan at this hour is that Trent Lott will be answering reporters' questions on Black Entertainment Television tomorrow night. That's the plan thus far.
Do you see this as potentially furthering the damage of Trent Lott, or does he need to do something like this?
SCHNEIDER: I think he absolutely needs to do this. This is an audience -- it's likely to be a friendly audience, because I believe that Robert Wood Johnson, the generic chairman of Black Entertainment Television, is a Republican.
But it's going to be an audience of African-Americans and many African-American conservatives, as well as Democrats, have been critical of Senator Lott.
He's going to have to answer every question and he's going to have to explain things he hasn't explained really: his support for Bob Jones University, his activities in his fraternity, when he was in college, to resist integration. His meeting with the Council of Conservative Citizens, which has ties to white racist groups.
There's a lot of things in his record that he's going to have to explain, and my expectation is he will be called on to explain them tomorrow night. So that's going to be the critical and possibly last chance he has to save his position.
WHITFIELD: All right. Bill Schneider, thank you very much for joining us from Boston. Appreciate it.
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 15, 2002 - 11:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Oklahoma Senator Nickles now joining in the call for incoming majority leader of the Senate Trent Lott to step down. Is this a significant turning point in the Lott drama?
Well, for some political and practical insight we turn to our senior political analyst Bill Schneider in Boston.
Well, Bill, you and I talked about this yesterday in terms of, you know, the drumbeats that would continue to get stronger by those joining Republicans and already we're starting to see the fallout. This is pretty significant, isn't it?
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It is significant, because this is someone who is likely to challenge Lott when the Republican majority meets in January. He is the second in line for leadership in the Senate majority, and it indicates that there's not going to be anything like acclimation to keep Senator Lott in office.
There's going to be a serious challenge, and I think a way was opened when the president made his remarks last week, which were a very harsh rebuke of Senator Lott, distancing himself from the majority leader.
WHITFIELD: Senator Nickles said, you know, he is concerned about the continued fall-out and the eroding reputation of Trent Lott.
And on that telephone call that you and I talked about yesterday that apparently a number of Republican leaders were part of, that was one of the very concerns that was apparently articulated or at least reportedly articulated, that perhaps the Democrats might have a good time in the coming term, talking about Trent Lott and his comments and how it would continue to erode the credibility and the respect of the Republican party as a whole.
SCHNEIDER: Well, that's right. Remember that Trent Lott will be the face of the Republican majority in the Senate. He's the one who will be working closely with the White House, with President Bush.
And a number of important judicial appointments are going to come up, almost certainly, possibly some Supreme Court appointments in the next two years. Many of those appointments are going to be intensely controversial. Some of them will involve civil rights issues, and any time a judicial appointee comes up whose civil rights record is in question and Senator Lott is presiding, these questions are going to come up again and again. Democrats will see to that. That, I think, more than anything else, is what has the -- what has the Republican majority worried.
WHITFIELD: What's the process if -- toward a new election, if it were to come to that for a majority leader?
SCHNEIDER: Well, I'm not sure I know all the detailed rules about the Republican Caucus, but they elect the majority leader. This is not like the speaker of the house. The speaker of the house is elected by the entire House of Representatives. The majority leader in the Senate is just that, the leader of the majority party, the 51 now Republicans in the Senate.
So they will caucus in early January. I think the date is January 8. And there is a procedure, I don't know all the rules, for selecting their leader. He can be challenged, and apparently Senator Nickles, and I would expect possibly some others, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Bill Frist of Tennessee, those names have been talked about as other potential challengers to Trent Lott.
I think this is a very healthy thing, because it enables Republicans to decide for themselves what face they want on the Republican majority to present to the country.
WHITFIELD: All right, at the plan -- the plan at this hour is that Trent Lott will be answering reporters' questions on Black Entertainment Television tomorrow night. That's the plan thus far.
Do you see this as potentially furthering the damage of Trent Lott, or does he need to do something like this?
SCHNEIDER: I think he absolutely needs to do this. This is an audience -- it's likely to be a friendly audience, because I believe that Robert Wood Johnson, the generic chairman of Black Entertainment Television, is a Republican.
But it's going to be an audience of African-Americans and many African-American conservatives, as well as Democrats, have been critical of Senator Lott.
He's going to have to answer every question and he's going to have to explain things he hasn't explained really: his support for Bob Jones University, his activities in his fraternity, when he was in college, to resist integration. His meeting with the Council of Conservative Citizens, which has ties to white racist groups.
There's a lot of things in his record that he's going to have to explain, and my expectation is he will be called on to explain them tomorrow night. So that's going to be the critical and possibly last chance he has to save his position.
WHITFIELD: All right. Bill Schneider, thank you very much for joining us from Boston. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
