WP: Lott Is Free to Indulge Maverick Streak [View All]

He once was the Senate Republicans' ultimate insider, but Trent Lott increasingly is playing the maverick, gigging his party's elite in the Bush administration and in Congress -- and seeming to enjoy it.

The Mississippi senator drew national headlines Dec. 15 when he sharply criticized Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's handling of the war in Iraq. "I am not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld," Lott said in a speech in Biloxi. "I would like to see a change in that slot in the next year or so."

Many Republicans had shrugged off similar criticisms from GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Chuck Hagel (Neb.), because the two pride themselves on their independence and outsider status. But this zinger came from the man who was the Republican Senate leader until late 2002, when he uttered ill-fated praise of Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist bid for the White House. Lott struggled to keep his post, but key Republicans -- including President Bush and numerous senators -- cut him loose, replacing him with Sen. Bill Frist (Tenn.).

Since then, Lott has exhibited a nothing-left-to-lose air. On Thursday, he called a Capitol news conference to chastise congressional leaders for sending Senate committee budgets to new heights -- or "larding our own nests," as Lott, the Rules Committee chairman, put it. Authorized spending for all committees has nearly doubled since 1997 ($95 million compared with the new Congress's $185 million), Lott said. He argued for more frugality, he said, "but I just got rolled by the leaders, and I don't like it."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59768-2005Jan8.html