BY
Hilliard Lackey
Columnist

Senator Trent Lott, in announcing his resignation from the senate after 18 years, sent shock waves throughout Mississippi and most of America while bringing a smile to the face of his 2006 campaign rival State Representative Erik Fleming. Lott soundly trounced Fleming, an African American Democrat, during the 2006 general election but surprisingly garnered 30% of the ballots cast statewide.

Having lost his own seat in the state house of representatives earlier this month, Fleming is between political posts now and looms as a viable candidate to succeed Lott in the unlikely event of a special election. Governor Haley Barbour, however, will surely take the appointment option and name another Republican for Lott’s remaining five years.  The first choice may be Barbour himself even though he was just re-elected as governor for a second term starting in January 2008.  

The numerical balance in the U.S. Senate stands at 51 Democrats and 49 Republicans although two senators having been elected as Democrats are serving as independents. Another member of the G.O.P. to replace Lott is essential to party leaders as they struggle to not only maintain the balance of power but also perhaps regain a majority.

Meanwhile, the 66-year-old Lott has opted to remove himself from the Washington political scene after 34 years away from home to enjoy the fruits of his labor while serving in the private sector closer to home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The senator is rumored not be wealthy like many of his colleagues and has talked for some time about leaving so he could earn more money presumably as a lobbyist.

The prevailing speculation is the senator decided to leave by year’s end to circumvent new lobbying rules — instituted by Congress this year and effective in 2008 — that that would bar former senators from lobbying sitting senators for two years. By leaving the senate now rather than next year or thereafter, Lott falls under the so-called “revolving door” policy now in effect that keeps former senators from lobbying their sitting members for one year. Recent scandals prompted the legal change to avert situations akin to those made famous by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Lott decided to run for a fourth Senate term in 2006 for reasons including representing Mississippi and the Gulf Coast region in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

He now feels he's laid the groundwork in Washington to make sure the region is looked after, according to a source familiar with his announcement.

Lott served as Senate majority leader when Republicans controlled that body but was pushed out of the leadership post after he told a 2002 birthday gathering for former Sen. Strom Thurmond that the country would have avoided "all these problems" if Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential bid had succeeded.