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December
18, 2002, 8:45 a.m.
Don
Nickles
Thank
You.
By NRO Staff
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EDITOR’S
NOTE: The newspaper accounts tell us that Senator Trent Lott is taking
the names of who is or isn't going to stand by him while he tries to maintain
his hold on power by any means necessary. Well, so is NRO. We know the
senators want this matter to operate by the super-secret rules of the
Skull & Bones Society, but it's too important for that. Excuse us
for noting the performance of senators at a crucial time for the GOP.
ver the weekend,
while Trent Lott's 49 other colleagues were linking their arms and holding
their breath to see how his latest serial apology played out, Senator
Don Nickles did the right thing.
This was not, despite
the conventional wisdom, an act of ambition. One would have to think Nickles
is a singularly stupid man to imagine that he saw this as a ticket to
the top of the pile.
Of course his statement
of the obvious--that Trent Lott has to step aside for the good of conservative
policy and of the Republican party--would be seen as opportunistic (many
allies advised Nickles not to go first). To Senator Nickles's credit,
he did it anyway.
Meanwhile, as
Kate O'Beirne has pointed out, Don Nickles's voting record, which
the NAACP condemns as too similar to Lott's, should really recommend him.
In contrast to Lott, he is able and willing to defend it. The sooner conservatives
can defend principled votes at odds with the NAACP's agenda without Trent
Lott's self-imposed baggage, the better.
Of course, it is
difficult to parse what will happen in any prospective Senate leadership
election. Nickles has his critics: for his ambition over the years to
replace Lott, for the job he did as whip, and, now, for going first.
It is a token of
the current environment among Senate Republicans that saying the obvious
should constitute an act of courage. But so it is. And whatever happens
with Nickles, whether he runs and whether he wins, at this time conservatives
simply owe him two words: Thank you.
Read NRO:
On Santorum. On
McConnell. On Frist.
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