Senate Report Card: Trent Lott R-MS

Trent Lott is a Republican Senator from the state of Mississippi. He previously served as the majority leader of the Senate. He now serves as the Minority Whip in the Senate. He was elected to the Senate in 1988 facing reasonable opposition, but in elections since has faced no serious Democratic contender for his seat.

Senator Lott has been famously mired in controversy stemming from comments he made at the 100th birthday celebration of former Senator Strom Thurmond who ran for President in 1946 as a Dixiecrat saying, "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 the years, either." The controversy followed in that Thurmond ran on a strictly segregationist platform. Upon an uproar after the comments, Lott was pressured to give up his Majority Leader status.

Lott has voted against the Voting Rights Act, the continuation of the Civil Rights Act and opposed Martin Luther King Holiday. Lott was also a supporter of segregation in his earlier days as a politician.

Senator Trent Lott serves on the Rules & Administration; Commerce, Science and Transportation and Finance Committees.

When Mississippi was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, Lott was directly affected as his home in Pascagoula was destroyed and like many other citizens affected by the storm in Mississippi was plagued with insurance debacles. Senator Lott has fought for funds to rebuild the Mississippi coast.

Despite his fight for funds for Mississippi after Katrina, Lott has been highly criticized asa habitual "pork spender" attaching pet projects for his constituents at home on spending bills. He's been quoted by fellow Senator Tom Coburn as saying, "Balancing the budget is a nice idea, but I got a election to win."

Lott has faced large opposition due to his support of President Bush's comprohensive Immigration Bill as supporting amnesty for illegal aliens. The bill was partisan and paired Lott with famed liberal Senator Ted Kennedy in supporting the bill. He fired back to his conservative critics pointing out that doing nothing is also unacceptable, and it's the best bill for the moment.

Senator Lott also broke away from the Republican Party in calling for former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. He fought with President Bush over the Base Realignment and Closure Act that shut down military installations within his state.

As a supporter of the War in Iraq, the Senator's website quotes him saying, "To those who believe that we should abandon the War on Terror, close down Guantanamo, withdraw from Iraq, talk to terrorists, try to "understand" them - history teaches otherwise."

Senator Trent Lott is up for reelection in 2013, which will be his 5th term.