Anti-Gay, Pro-Segregation Trent Lott (Finally) Resigns from Senate

Trent Lott (R-MS), the veteran arch-conservative, anti-gay and proto-segregationist senator, finally calls it quits and announces his resignation before the year's end. Lott becomes the sixth GOP senator to step down this election cycle and is reportedly pursuing "other opportunities."

Think Progress reports Lott’s "other opportunities" involve joining the "lucrative world of lobbying Congress" before "tougher restrictions in a new lobbying law takes effect at the end of the year. That law would require Senators to wait two-years before entering the lucrative world of lobbying Congress."

Lott voted against the Matthew Shepard Hate Crime bill and is opposed to including gays and lesbians in federal job protection laws. In 2003 he was a lead supporter of U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering's nomination to the federal appeals court which was "opposed by all LGBT rights groups over rulings in which included slurs against gays." Lott also was a principal supporter of the failed Federal Marriage Amendment—more HERE—and has linked homosexuality to bestiality, incest and polygamy in Senate floor speeches.

Trent Lott was forced from his longtime Senate Majority Leader seat in disgrace in late 2002 after complimenting the 1948 segregationist presidential platform of former Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC). "I want to say this about my state," Lott said at Thurmond's 100th birthday party celebration. "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either."

Goodbye, good riddance, good luck.

Comments

[Derrick from Philly]

Probably the most despicable US Senator since Strom Thurmond. Well, I forgot about Jesse Helms...and then there's our own Democratic Senator, Robert Byrd, a former Klansman. Come to think of it, there's a bunch of 'em in the US Senate that are rotten bastards...rubbin' other men's feet in the next toilet stall. Lord, have mercy.

[ralphie]

Trent Lott is one of the worst senators ever to step foot on the US Capitol. He has made a career from fear, over race, religion, sexuality and terror. An evil man.

[Luther]

And, before the jumping and down starts, just remember, he is being replaced by a younger bigot, the son of Chuck Pickering, Chip, so, things will remain the same with the member from Mississippi, virulently anti- black, and, most likely anti-gay.

[Andy Niable]

(Dusting hands) Good riddance. Hastert is leaving too. Good riddance. Time to clean house. America (and Congress) needs change. It's now up to US to fill the vacuum. Otherwise we'll just get Strom/Trent/Jesse 2.0.

[IsleZeus]

Hey Rod, can you report on the rumors about an online rentboy that some blogs (Perez Hilton I think)who most probably might have ties to Mr. Lott, the (closeted) Racist Homophobe.

[Rod McCullom]

Zeus, there isn't much to report. The hustler/rentboy denied knowing Lott and denied even claiming there was a story. It appears the blog that advanced the rumors may have faked some of the emails that said otherwise.

That was quite obvious to me, which is why I stayed away from the story. Lott is resigning to lobby, and, along with many of his other Republican colleagues, does not want to be in the minority.