WASHINGTON - Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi quit as Senate Republican leader yesterday, yielding to a political furor over his racially charged comments, and Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee quickly garnered enough support to become majority leader.
Lott's abrupt resignation yesterday morning - after he had insisted for days that he would not surrender his post - opened the floodgates for public endorsements of Frist. The Tennesseean is a close ally of President Bush and is regarded as a presidential prospect.
"In the interest of pursuing the best possible agenda for the future of our country," Lott said in a brief statement, "I will not seek to remain as majority leader of the United States Senate for the 108th Congress, effective Jan. 6, 2003."
Lott, 61, who has been Republican leader for six years, said he will keep his Senate seat.
By midafternoon, it was clear that Frist commanded the backing of more than half the Senate's 50 other Republicans, making his election as leader next week a mere formality. The Senate Republicans are to hold a special election by conference call Monday.
A potential Frist rival, Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, called that meeting after concluding that he lacked the votes to challenge Frist for the post. Santorum issued a statement last night endorsing Frist.
Two other top Republicans - Sens. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, who has served as Lott's deputy, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who will take the No. 2 post in January - had earlier backed Frist.
The Republican shake-up made history in the Senate, in which no party leader - Republican or Democrat - had ever before quit under fire.
Republicans said it also marked a turning point for their party, which many thought had been tainted by association with Lott.
At a 100th birthday party for retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond on Dec. 5, Lott said the nation would have been better off had it elected Thurmond as president in 1948, when he ran on a platform that embraced racial segregation.
With criticism raging, Lott apologized numerous times and promised, as majority leader, to pursue causes important to African-Americans, including affirmative action. But with the White House and Republicans fearful that the uproar would hurt their efforts to win over minority voters, the pressure built steadily for Lott to resign.
'Those days are gone'
"This is not an incidental moment; it is a historic moment," said Sen. George F. Allen of Virginia, one of Frist's most fervent supporters and his successor as head of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.
"This is a day," Allen said, "that the United States Senate, with Trent Lott's resignation, has buried, graveyard dead and gone, the days of discrimination and segregation. Those days are gone and gone forever."
Frist issued his own statement, calling Lott's decision "selfless," and saying he was "saddened for Lott and his family."
"We have a unique opportunity to accomplish great things for America during the next few months," Frist said in the statement, which did not mention his candidacy.
Lining up supporters
Frist, a 50-year-old heart surgeon who is popular with his colleagues and helped orchestrate last month's Republican election victories, had been careful not to appear too eager to challenge his leader. But behind the scenes, he had been sounding out fellow Republicans. And with the aid of a highly respected senior colleague, John W. Warner of Virginia, he lined up the votes.
Frist's early base of support came from some senior Republicans who worried that they might not be able to advance the party's conservative agenda amid the storm surrounding Lott's words.
Backing for Frist also came from the party's eight senators-elect, who benefited from his leadership of the party's Senatorial Campaign Committee. The first of them to come out for Frist, his fellow Tennesseean Lamar Alexander, said yesterday, "I would say he is the most admired Republican senator today - he might be the most admired senator."
Another senator-elect, James M. Talent of Missouri, said: "Senator Frist has tremendous integrity, an ethic of hard work and the ability to lead."
Bush praises Lott
Bush, who had taken pains not to appear to be meddling in the Senate's affairs by openly supporting his friend Frist, did not mention the Tennesseean in his statement on the matter.
"I respect the very difficult decision Trent made on behalf of the American people," Bush said.
Lott "is a valued friend and a man I respect. I am pleased he will continue to serve our nation in the Senate, and I look forward to working with him on our agenda to make America safer, stronger and better."
Some Lott allies privately expressed anger at the White House in recent days for its handling of the crisis surrounding Lott, a 30-year veteran of Congress. Bush's harsh public rebuke of Lott, they said, helped fuel the outcry. And anonymous remarks from White House officials fed the notion that Bush wanted Lott out.
Frist, whose voting record is at least as conservative as Lott's, nonetheless appeals to moderates in his party and even to some Democrats because of his pragmatic style and willingness to reach across party lines on key issues, especially his main area of expertise: health care.
"I believe [Frist] will be an extremely effective leader for advancing our agenda for America," said Republican Sen. Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, a co-chair of the Senate Centrist Coalition.
Frist's rating from the American Conservative Union last year was 100 percent, compared with Lott's 96 percent.
NAACP seeks 'deeds'
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People gave both men failing grades for their records on issues of concern to blacks during the 107th Congress.
In a statement, Kweisi Mfume, the NAACP president, said:
"The Republican Party now has the opportunity to break from a past that is still marred by racial insensitivity, but it will require more than just words or this resignation. It will require deeds."
The anti-abortion National Right to Life Committee said Frist has a "pro-life" voting record, just as Lott did.
Some black congressional leaders pointed to Lott's decision as a sign of potential progress toward racial healing for the nation, but suggested it was only one step.
The Congressional Black Caucus said Republicans must "finally demonstrate in substantive policy initiatives their commitment to expand opportunity for all Americans."
"Unfortunately, Senator Lott is not alone, and the Republican Party agenda has failed to address the issues that most affect people of color," Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, chairwoman of the Black Caucus, and Elijah E. Cummings of Baltimore, the chairman-elect, both Democrats, said in a statement.
Allen, who is to take the helm of the campaign committee, suggested that Lott had been jeopardizing the party's chances of appealing to minority voters in the next elections.
"We need to portray an accurate view of our principles, our philosophy, our beliefs as a Republican Party," Allen said. "Trent Lott remaining as leader would have made that very, very difficult."
Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, said Lott's resignation was "the bandage needed to stop the hemorrhaging."
"The party of Lincoln is healed," Foley declared.
Skepticism of Frist
Still, Frist did not escape skepticism from conservative activists who worry that he does not work hard enough to promote their priorities.
Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, said Republicans should not have backed Frist so quickly over Santorum, who, Weyrich suggested, had the conservative credentials and zeal to take on Democrats more aggressively.
Senate Republicans should not "just give the leadership to Senator Frist because he has the most pleasing personality," Weyrich said.
Democrats, now robbed of an easy target for their criticism of Republican policies, were quick to call for additional steps beyond Lott's resignation as leader to prove that his party is committed to racial justice.
"The new Republican leader in the Senate must do more now than merely disavow Senator Lott's words," said Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic leader. "He or she must confront the Republican Party's record on race and embrace policies that promote genuine healing and greater opportunity for all Americans."
Policy changes sought
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the senior Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, fired off a letter to Bush calling on him to demonstrate Republicans' commitment to equal rights by changing course on several key education issues.
The letter, sent by Kennedy and Rep. George Miller of California, the senior Democrat on the House education panel, urged Bush to support, for example, the use of race and ethnicity as factors in college admissions decisions.
They also want the president to require that tutoring and other remedial programs authorized for low-performing schools in Bush's "No Child Left Behind" education bill abide by anti-discrimination laws.