Good riddance to Trent Lott

We don't make it a practice to comment on national political news, but we feel we can stretch the rules a bit to make an observation about Trent Lott's retirement from the U.S. Senate.

Good riddance.

(There are a couple of tangential Bluegrass State connections that allow us to bend the rules. Lott's son lives in Lexington. And it was Lott's fall from grace in the Strom Thurmond brouhaha that allowed Mitch McConnell to take over as Senate Republican leader).

Our dislike for Lott dates back a decade, when he was the majority leader of the Senate during the impeachment trial of President Clinton.

Lott could have pressed for a real trial, with the testimony of witnesses and the introduction of evidence, but he didn't. Instead of Monica Lewinsky testifying as to what actually transpired under the Oval Office desk, instead of the stained blue dress being put on display for all to see, and instead of transcripts of Clinton's perjurious testimony in the Paula Jones civil suit being read into the record, we got that spectacle of a sham "trial" that did nothing but waste everyone's time.

Since the Republicans did not hold a supermajority in the Senate, the outcome was probably a foregone conclusion, but perhaps real live testimony, with witnesses being sworn and evidence presented, may have swayed a few people to vote for removal from office.

Pachyderms have long memories. We've remembered this about Lott for a long time.

(As an aside, we got a major laugh when one Kentucky blog went all ga-ga over an outrageous rumor that Lott resigned because he was about to be outed as gay. Some people will believe anything, and Kentucky liberals/Democrats have time and time again proven to be the most gullible souls on the planet. After all, they bought Steve Beshear's promises of ethical government, didn't they?)