Is Lott Negotiating A Future Lobbying Position In Violation Of Senate Ethics Rules?
Is Lott Negotiating A Future Lobbying Position In Violation Of Senate Ethics Rules?
After Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS) announced his resignation this week, it was widely speculated that Lott was quitting in order to dodge Senate ethics standards that take effect next year. The new rules require senators to wait two years before entering “the lucrative world” of lobbying Congress. Lott denied the rumor at a press conference, saying the new law “didn’t have a big role” in his decision.
At the same press conference, Lott was also asked about Senate ethics rules regarding “negotiating with a future employer,” to which he replied that he’s “not really involved in negotiation,” but that “there are some opportunities out there” that he wants “to be able to consider”:
QUESTION: Senator, I understand there’s a rule in the Senate that if you’re negotiating with a future employer, that you must register with the Ethics Committee. Have you been down to that committee yet?
LOTT: Well, I have not yet, but I’m not really involved in negotiation. I’ve tried to stay away from that. There are some opportunities out there that I want to be able to consider, but I have nothing that we’ve agreed to or lined up.
One of the “opportunities” that Lott is considering, according to his son, Chester Lott — who is also a lobbyist — is “a partnership” with former Sen. John Breaux (D-LA), who until today, was the senior counsel at a powerhouse lobbying firm. But just this afternoon, Breaux announced that he was leaving Patton Boggs in order “to form his own firm with his son, John Jr.”:
Former United States Senator John Breaux, Senior Counsel to Patton Boggs Law Firm, announced that he would be forming a new public policy consulting firm in January 2008.
Breaux stated that while he has the greatest personal and professional respect for Tom Boggs and the members of the company, the new firm will offer him an opportunity to be in business with his son, John Jr., a goal that he has always wanted to achieve.
Though the younger Lott told Legal Times that there have “been no formal talks at all” between the two senators, he also added that “Breaux and his father have long joked about the prospect of working together.”
If Lott is indeed considering “a partnership” with Breaux — speculation of which Breaux’s move fuels — then their plans may have been another factor in the timing of his resignation. The new ethics rules that take effect at the end of the current session have much more stringent regulations about negotiating future employment with lobbyists:
If Senators want to engage in negotiations or make any arrangements for jobs involving lobbying, they must wait to do so until their successors have been elected. There are no exceptions to this rule.
If Lott had resigned next year, he would have had to wait until after his successor is elected to even begin negotiating his future lobbying job, which means he may have needed to wait almost a year to start cashing in with his old buddy Breaux.
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Throw the whole Lott of them overboard.
November 28th, 2007 at 7:22 pmHere are just some of Trent Lott’s potential future careers…
November 28th, 2007 at 7:37 pmbteh, since when did violating ethics ever stop, slow down, or mean anything to a republican? Hell, violating ethics rules is a republican badge of honor.
November 28th, 2007 at 7:41 pm.
Is lot resigning because of a relationship with a male escort?
November 28th, 2007 at 7:50 pmFile this all under The Wink-Wink, Nudge, KnowwhatImean, Say No More folder.
November 28th, 2007 at 7:50 pmTrent Lott’s Brother-In-Law, Nephew, Indicted On Federal Bribery Charges
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/28/trent-lotts-brotherinl_n_74572.html
Why…is that not damn interesting or what?
November 28th, 2007 at 7:56 pmIt could be the lobbying post but more likely it’s what Larry Flynt’s going to air about his male prostitution activities which will embarrass Lott into the next century.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:01 pmChristy2: It looks like the whole Lott family is a bunch of criminals and scoundrels. Good riddance to this thug.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:02 pmWhat with the Lott crime family bribing federal judges and all, the lobbies will be bidding on his rat-fur-covered head. Very attractive property, that Trent.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:19 pmDid somebody say “ethics” and “Republican” in the same sentence?
November 28th, 2007 at 8:55 pmI remembered I read something the yesterday about Lott retiring… LOOKY
Mr. Specter suggested Mr. Lott has been experiencing “financial problems” since Hurricane Katrina destroyed his beachfront home in Pascagoula, Miss., in 2005. Soon after, he involved himself in a class-action legal dispute with State Farm Insurance, claiming the wreckage was caused primarily by the high winds and not by flooding. Many homeowner’s policies don’t cover flood damage but will cover wind damage.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07331/837038-176.stm
And about his brotherin law and nephew! From the Huffpo link I posted
“According to the 13-page indictment, Scruggs and three other attorneys — including Lott’s nephew Zach — attempted to bribe Mississippi Third Circuit Court Judge Henry L. Lackey with at least $40,000 in cash.
‘Lackey was assigned to hear a lawsuit in which Scruggs’ firm was named as a defendant in a dispute involving $26.5 million in attorneys’ fees stemming from a court settlement with State Farm Insurance over Hurricane Katrina claims.
The indictment alleges that the bribe was intended to resolve the case in Scruggs’ and his firm’s favor. Also charged were attorneys Sidney A. Backstrom and Timothy R. Balducci, as well as Steven A. Patterson, an employee of Balducci’s law firm.”
HEHEHE!
November 28th, 2007 at 8:56 pmHi, my name is Trent Lott, and I’m the new spokesperson for “Hair Club For Men”…
November 28th, 2007 at 9:01 pmAgain, I’m forced to ask the question, “Is that a picture of the real Trent Lott, or is a picture of the wax figure they’re putting up at Madam Tussauds”?
November 28th, 2007 at 9:03 pmChester Lott. That’s a great name.
/sarcasm
November 28th, 2007 at 9:17 pmSo at one time in Lott’s career he may have voted against his own best interests, way before his home was wrecked.
But that’s what Repukes do, they vote against their own best interests.
November 28th, 2007 at 9:19 pmI swear if i see one more of those annoying lapel pins I am going to go freaking mental. This is what it means to love thy country? Shallow simple minded shits. How about some more magnetic ribbons for the SUV? That will sure show my allegence won’t it?
November 28th, 2007 at 9:22 pmChristy2, thanks for the link. As Lott is an “Old South” family, the culture holds that your honor is a matter of the honor of the family – so having family members running around bribing judges directly impugnes Trent’s claim to being a man of honor (more simply, his inlaw and nephew – what are the probabilities that they were of this ilk while Trent was Lilly-White ?).
November 28th, 2007 at 9:36 pmWhat?
Are you telling me that Trent Lott may NOT be the most ethical man to ever crawl out of the GOP swamp?
I for one, am shocked.
November 29th, 2007 at 9:24 amComment by smgumby — November 29, 2007 @ 9:24 am
It looks like the Lott crime family is just the southern version of the Stevens crime family in Alaska. I guess it is all part of the repug code of (un)ethics.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:05 amCaption Contest:
Hey! Why is my palm still empty?
November 29th, 2007 at 12:34 pmI thought the position he was negotiating was to be bent over and taking it dry up his a$$ from a gay whore.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:52 pm