Trent Lott to resign

Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) is leaving office at the end of the year. He has decided not to finish out his term.

Lott decided to run for a fourth Senate term in 2006 for reasons including representing Mississippi and the Gulf Coast region in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, is serving in his fourth term in the U.S. Senate.

He now feels he's laid the groundwork in Washington to make sure the region is looked after, according to a source familiar with his announcement.

Lott intends to join the private sector.

This is a curious turn of events.

Following his disgraceful exit from the senate leadership in 2002, when he praised the segregationist politics of Strom Thurmond, Lott actually managed to claw his way back to the number-two position in the senate.

If, as he suggested in 2006, Lott ran for reelection to help his state recover from Katrina, he is leaving before that job is done. You would think that the Senate Minority Whip might be able to do his home state a lot of good. Isn't that one of the selling points for entrenched incumbents in the first place? Don't they always argue that their experience and influence make them a better choice than some upstart challenger?

But now, Lott says, "private sector" opportunities have compelled him to abandon his constituents just one year after they granted him a fourth six-year term in the senate.

The private sector must have put some serious cash on the table. That, or we are about to learn a whole new definition for the word "scandal."