Lott Says He Will Stay as Leader

WASHINGTON —  Beleaguered Senate Republican leader Trent Lott insisted Tuesday that he would hang onto his job despite a growing belief among many Republicans in the capital that his grip on power is weakening.

With Lott facing a crisis of confidence within his party that will come to a head on or before Jan. 6, President Bush maintained a determined silence on the question of who will spearhead his agenda for the next two years in the Senate, which is returning to Republican control.

The president, at a White House event, waved off a question about the Mississippi senator. And Bush’s spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said the president would not get involved in the simmering Senate leadership fight.

Lott is fighting for survival as party leader in the Senate, a position he has held for the last six years, in the aftermath of a comment he made Dec. 5 at a birthday party for centenarian Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.). Lott praised Thurmond’s run for the presidency in 1948 and said the nation would have been better off had he been elected.

The remark was widely interpreted as a tacit endorsement of the policy of racial segregation Thurmond advocated at the time. Initially, Lott sought to let the controversy blow over without comment. Then he said he had been misunderstood.

He has since issued a series of increasingly fervent apologies, the latest Monday night in an interview on Black Entertainment Television. But the apologies have been undermined by revelations concerning Lott’s past associations with advocates of segregation, his previous comments praising Thurmond’s presidential run, and his record in Congress of opposing an array of civil rights measures.

For a White House known for intervening in important political contests, the refusal to back Lott as the furor has grown is telling. On Dec. 10, Fleischer told reporters that Bush “unquestionably” had confidence in Lott’s leadership.

But on Tuesday, one week later, Fleischer said only that Bush “views Sen. Lott as a friend. The president has respect for all senators, including Sen. Lott.”

How many of the 50 Republicans who will serve in the Senate with Lott next year still respect his leadership abilities remains to be seen. His support appears to be ebbing daily.

Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.), who took office in November after capturing a Democratic-held seat, broke his silence on the controversy Tuesday. “There is now a substantial question as to whether Sen. Lott has the capacity to move” the GOP agenda in the new Congress, he said.

Lott, however, received renewed pledges of support from some prominent Republicans on Tuesday. Among them were Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska -- incoming chairman of the Appropriations Committee, who after Thurmond is the most senior GOP senator -- and Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

“I’m frankly confident that Sen. Lott will continue to be the majority leader,” said Santorum, who as chairman of the Republican conference is the party’s third-ranking Senate leader. “I have very little doubt about that.”

Others weighing in strongly for Lott in recent days have included Sens. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, incoming chairman of the Banking Committee; Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, incoming chairman of the Health and Education committee; and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the newly elected incoming majority whip.

But many GOP senators have maintained a strict -- and for Lott, perilous -- neutrality.

“This matter has gone beyond the statement of a single individual to one of national importance, and unfortunately divisiveness and turmoil,” Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said. “As such, this situation should be and very well may be resolved prior [to] Jan. 6.”

Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.), a longtime Lott rival and the outgoing assistant GOP leader, has called Lott a weakened leader who could be replaced. Many congressional aides and other well-positioned Republicans in Washington, speaking privately Tuesday, believe that Lott can and should be replaced -- preferably before the leadership meeting scheduled for Jan. 6. In that meeting, Lott faces a possible vote of no confidence. Votes for a new leader could also be taken -- all by secret ballot.

For some Republicans, the leadership fight is complicated by the narrow division of the Senate. Republicans will hold 51 of the chamber’s 100 seats when Congress convenes Jan. 7. Should Lott step aside as majority leader, he could opt to keep his seat.

But he also could resign from the Senate. In that case, Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat, would be able to fill the vacancy with a temporary appointment. If Lott resigns before Jan. 1, under state law, a special election could be called soon afterward. But if he resigns after Jan. 1, a Musgrove appointment would last until a special election that would be held later in the year.

Lott, 61, brushed aside all such speculation. On Tuesday, in a brief interview with ABC-TV’s “World News Tonight” in his hometown of Pascagoula, Miss., he said he understood he had caused difficulty for his peers.

“But they need to think through the job I have done in the past,” Lott said. “They know my heart and who I really am. They know what I have done behind the scenes to try to make the agenda move, including some legislation of interest to minorities and African Americans in particular. They know all of that.”

Lott predicted that he would prevail: “I have had to fight all of my life,” he said, “and I am not stopping now.”