Senator Lott drawing fire again on race from civil rights groups

When Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) broke ranks and voted with Judiciary Committee Republicans in August to back the most contentious judicial nominee of the 110th Congress, she surprised nearly everyone with a stake in the battle. Everyone, perhaps, except Republican Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi.

Prior to the vote, Feinstein didn’t inform Lott that she had planned to give the decisive vote to back the nomination of Mississippian Leslie Southwick, and she insists that Lott was not influential in allaying her concerns.

{mosads}“I assuage my own concerns, and I do that on everyone,” Feinstein told The Hill on Thursday. “I have my own brain, and I try and use it.”

Behind the scenes, however, Lott was instrumental in working with Southwick to write a letter responding to concerns raised by the civil rights community about his record on racial issues, two GOP aides say. Feinstein, who asked Southwick to address those concerns in writing, read the letter during the Aug. 2 Judiciary Committee vote.

That letter helped win over Feinstein to support the nomination. But it did nothing to ease the anger within the civil rights community and in the Congressional Black Caucus, which, according to Chairwoman Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), is planning to address the Senate Democratic Caucus behind closed doors to urge Democrats to derail the nomination. For Lott, handling the anger from the black community is a particularly acute issue. Nearly five years ago, Lott faced a
political uproar over his comments that the United States would have avoided “all these problems” had then-segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) been elected president in 1948.

Lott later apologized, saying his comments about Thurmond were misconstrued, and went on the offensive to mend relations with the black community. But with little political support and under intense pressure, he was forced to relinquish his spot as the top Republican in the chamber.

“I would think his recent experiences would have made him sensitive to civil rights issues, but unfortunately, in this instance, that is not the case,” said Leslie Proll, the director of the Washington office for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

“As far as I know, his relation with the black community is minor,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who is leading the fight within the Congressional Black Caucus against the nomination. “There’s no penalty for Trent Lott in that,” Thompson added, citing the senator’s safe seat.

Civil rights groups fear Southwick would be hostile to civil rights cases, which are frequent in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and the states it covers: Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. They cite a 1998 case in the Mississippi Court of Appeals in which Southwick joined a majority ruling allowing a state worker to be reinstated despite using a racial slur, and they said he has joined “anti-gay” rulings as well.

But supporters argue Southwick has proven to be a fair arbiter of the law, saying liberal groups have cherry-picked a handful of the more than 6,000 cases he has presided over. In his letter to Feinstein, Southwick wrote: “I believe that everyone whom I encounter … is deserving of my respect.”

In this battle with the civil rights community, Lott has strong backing from the senior Mississippi GOP senator, Thad Cochran, who is also pushing hard on the nomination, as well as the other Republican leaders and the White House. The supporters say opponents have distorted a well-qualified nominee’s civil rights record.

Wendy Wright, president of the Concerned Women for America, said Lott is not taking a political risk in backing Southwick, pointing to the “well-qualified” rating awarded him by the American Bar Association.

Nick Simpson, a spokesman for Lott, said the accusations that the senator is racially insensitive have no merit. He also pointed to the last Congress, when Judiciary Committee Democrats voted for Southwick to serve on a Mississippi district court. His nomination never came to a vote before the 109th Congress adjourned.

“For that to be an accurate statement, that would mean when Judge Southwick was unanimously voted out of the committee, every Democrat that voted for him was also racially insensitive,” Simpson said. “For that statement to stand, it would be a blanket statement against members of the Democratic leadership.”

At last month’s markup, Feinstein also agreed that the nominations should move forward. Based on the letter and her conversations with Southwick, she did not believe he was “out of the judicial mainstream.” Her support gave Republicans their decisive 10th vote to send the nomination to the floor by a one-vote margin.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has signaled that he would schedule a vote on the nomination despite his opposition, but has not indicated when that would occur.

Daphne Retter contributed to this story.