Senator Trent Lott announced he is resigning his seat in the Senate by the end of the year. The Mississippi seat is considered safe for Republicans, so the speculation in Washington concerns his motives for resigning now rather than completing his term which ends in 2012. The consensus opinion is that the former majority leader and closet segregationist now wants to cash in on his thirty five years worth of DC experience and contacts as a lobbyist. Senate ethics rules will change in 2008 restricting former senators from lobbying the chamber for two years. There are rumors that Lott has financial difficulties after losing his beachfront home in Pascagoula to Katrina. Lott's career is a case study of what is wrong with Congress. Lott voted against establishing a Senate Office for Public Integrity, the ethics reform bill that established the modest two year restriction on the revolving door, and the McCain-Feingold bill banning so-called soft money contributions. These are just some recent examples of his long opposition to lobbying reform because Lott apparently has never met a corporation he did not like. Lott leads the Senate in corporate jet usage. He scores a whopping 96% on the US Chamber of Commerce's pro-business voting scorecard. The Senator voted against ending tax subsidies for corporations that move U.S. jobs offshore while denying bankruptcy relief to thousands of Americans.Lott has a deserved reputation as a traditional pork barrel politician. His most egregious effort at special interest legislation was the $700 million "railroad to nowhere" along the Mississippi Gulf shore. The line was damaged by hurricanes and repaired at the a cost of $250 million to the railroad and it's insurers. After the repairs were made, Lott and fellow Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran added a whopping $700 million earmark to an emergency defense spending bill to move the line farther inland allegedly for protection from storms. The piece of pork is the largest in the history of Congress and maybe the greasiest. The CSX freight line is in the way of a scheme backed by wealthy land developers to turn the storm ravaged coast into a "Las Vegas South"--a glitzy collection of new hotels and casinos along the strand. Lott saved his bloated earmark by one vote after opposition erupted in the Senate. He was miffed by the resistance,"I'll just say this about the so-called pork busters. I'm getting damn tired of hearing from them. They have been nothing but trouble ever since Katrina. We in Mississippi have not asked for more than we deserve. We've been very reasonable." Lott explained his success at passing pork,"I fold them [earmarks] into bills where you can't find it. I've been around here long enough to know how to bury it."
The Senator made his sentiments towards special interest legislation perfectly clear by killing a bill co-sponsored by Senator Obama creating a public database to track spending amendments using Senate procedural rules. I agree with the Senator on one thing: if you can deliver for your clients like Lott has you deserve to be paid more than $165,000 a year plus generous health and retirement benefits. Sooeee!