Sen. Trent Lott last night became the latest Republican to express frustration over the role of conservative talk radio in fomenting opposition to the immigration reform bill being crafted in the senate.
"Are we going to be run by talk radio?" Mr. Lott, Mississippi Republican, said to a handful of reporters just off the Senate floor, minutes before an agreement was reached to bring the immigration bill back for debate within the next week or two.
"I don't give a damn whether it's a liberal blogger or a conservative. I've done interviews. You know what I''ve found? Let me put it as generously as I can. They're missing the point. They don't know what's in the bill, they don't know what I'm trying to do, and they don't know what we're going to end up with," Mr. Lott said.
Last week conservative leader Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said that opponents if immigration reform are "a handful of loud people who talk about it loudly."
Mr. Lott, however, immediately tried to soften his comments.
"So, I think that's our fault. I don't blame them. We should have done a better job rolling this thing out," Mr. Lott said.
But he complained that the bill's particulars were being distorted, and pleaded with the press to "tell what's really going on here, and not leave it in the hands of the people that are pounding our phones."
"I have had to put our phones on hold because my staff can't do anything but handle irate calls from California and Illinois, and New Hampshire, and Mississippi," Mr. Lott said.
-- Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times
Comments (10)
You know what I've found? Let me put it as generously as I can. You're the one who is missing the point!
The people are in full agreement with the radio talk show hosts which seem to annoy you! ENFORCE THE EXISTING LAWS FIRST!!!!! Illegal means illegal and should be treated as such, not just be given the PC term for illegal, aka "undocumented"! They are not "undocumented"! They are criminals who have broken the law of this land and should be punished, just as any LEGAL citizen is, for breaking our laws!
Posted by john meyers | June 17, 2007 12:32 AM
Sen Lott says we ant-immigration bill peeople have not read it. Au contrare, we have. It's just that we doubt that the promises in the bill will ever be kept. The bill says the borders will be secure. In a pig's eye.
John Perry
Fort lauderdale
Posted by john perry | June 17, 2007 6:57 AM
Gee Trent, so sorry free speech is interfering with you and your partner's in crime desire to [vulgarity] the American people with your worthless immigration legislation. If you can't stand the heat then get out the kitchen. If you haven't aleady figured it out Senator then let me spell it out for you, we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore.
Posted by Donald Anderson | June 17, 2007 10:01 AM
Dear Senator Lott,
We are life long conservative Republicans and have followed your tenure in the US Senate quite closely. We were generally pleased with your work as Senate Majority leader. In this light, we defended you during the unkind treatment you received as a result of your comment made during Senator Strom Thurmond's birthday occasion. We considered the loss of your leadership position in the Senate to be a rather extreme penalty for your statement and thus was undeserved. It was we felt, sort of a quasi- assault on your freedom of speech, i.e., you seem to have been denied an elaboration of your case in a way that would exonerate you beyond a doubt.
So, you might imagine the jolt we experienced upon learning that you verbally opined that "Talk radio was running the country", the Senate would have to deal with this matter...and "rein in young Senate members who are huffing and puffing against the bill.". By what right or on what authority do say these things ? To coin a phrase Senator, "This ain't the standard of American thinking."
It is, to say the least, a chilling, frightening, elitist statement coming from you, who wears the label of a conservative Senator. in a position to initiate and/or promote a silencing of voices that selectively cries out our sentiments to the nation, regarding public policy. The US Senate while supposed representatives of the country's populace, has no monopoly on reason or intelligence. A strident and arrogant expression of an undisguised threat to the principle of freedom of speech, by a person like you held in such high esteem is beyond shock and disappointment. it really hurts the heart. There is the urge to lament, Say it isn't so, Senator Lott.
Senator, the days of systematically keeping the astute, intelligent and sensitive citizens of our nation politically ignorant are over. Back room deals and machinations that have escaped voters in the past, can now be exposed before God and everybody. We may not prevail in every future election, but we will have gone to the polls a more motivated and better informed voter than at any time in the history of our country. Holding the Senate to such scrutiny and accountability can be a "problem" for an incumbent who fails to register the pulse of his constituency.
The bottom line question Senator,. Is this latest inanity, an unguarded thoughtless and nonsensical quip uttered in a moment of passion ? Could it be just more uncontrolled gum flapping ala., the Strom Thurmond incident? Or have you made a decision. That by God we're going to shut down the "problems" that get in the way of this imperial US Senate's judgment?
We are looking forward with interest to your response.
The Dr. William L. Graham Family
Posted by Bill Graham | June 17, 2007 4:11 PM
Sen. Lott:
Your day is coming. A primary challenge by someone who understands your constituents will be undertaken and a weakened President Bush won't be able to help you the way he helped Spector. I look forward to the opportunity to donate money to your primary opponent. That goes for Kyl and McCain, too.
Get the message Republican Senators and Representatives: Your supporters don't want this bill! We want enforcement of the current laws FIRST!
Obviously, President Bush can't read, listen, or understand what we're saying, or he'd see his poll numbers plummeting and know that this is what's sending him into Carter territory.
Posted by David Jacobson | June 18, 2007 7:45 AM
Well Mr. Lott, it seems that you turned off your phones long ago, because you certainly not listening to what the people have said vis-a-vis AMNESTY.
Apparently you didn't hear the outcry last year when the people said they didn't want AMNESTY. Apparently your staff isn't telling you about the tens of thousands of e-mails they receive denouncing AMNESTY.
Maybe it's time you turned those phones back on and listened to your constituency as well as the American voices in opposition.
Posted by John Croix | June 18, 2007 9:34 AM
Americans care about law and want it to be applied evenly to everyone and that is why Paris Hilton is in jail. We do not say that if 20 million people are driving drunk and we cannot put all of them in jail, let's make drunk driving legal.
President Bush, with his rubber stamp senators, rushed the nation into Iraq and now wants to rush this bill through Senate. So, Mr. Lott and the rest of the senators need to finally start doing their job (ever hear of checks and balances) and think of the nation, and in this case at least think of the Republican party, as immigration is the one debate that can clearly help the Republicans with the mainstream voters in the next presidential election.
Posted by M. M. | June 18, 2007 10:45 AM
Senator Trent "Foghorn Leghorn" Lott is the reason I became a registered independent ten years ago. His return to the leadership role in the Senate illustrates just how far the Republican party has fallen.
Posted by Tom McGonnell | June 19, 2007 10:43 AM
I HEARD lINDSEY GRAHAM OPINE THAT HE DOESN'T WANT AN AMERICA WHERE, AS IN THE PAST, "IRISH NEED NOT APPLY AND JEWISH IMMIGRANTS ARE NOT WELCOME". OF COURSE HE AND HIS SENATE FRIENDS IMPLY WE'RE RACIST, NATIVIST YAHOOS. AMNESTY WAS GIVEN TO 2,00,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN 1986. WE NOW HAVE 12 TO 2O M BECAUSE NO ONE WAS GUARDING OUR COUNTRY. I AM ENRAGED THAT A REPUBLICAN WOULD PLAY THE RACE CARD TO MEET POLITICIAN'S ELECTION GOALS AND THE MONEY INTERESTS BEHIND THEM. THEY CAN'T BE TRUSTED TO ENFORCE THIS LATEST FIASCO. BUILD THE FENCE, ENFORCE OUR LAWS. OUR COUNTRY'S CULTURE IS AT STAKE.
KEN CESTARI
Posted by KEN CESTARI | June 19, 2007 4:21 PM
I only want the Senate,House and President to follow the LAW - illegal means just that! Send them home. ENFORCE THE LAW! That is what you were hired to do. Do it or resign and let someone else do it.
Posted by Mark Carter | June 20, 2007 6:31 PM