Newly appointed U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker said he was near the jars of peanut butter in Wal-Mart when U.S. Sen. Trent Lott rang his BlackBerry to say he was ready to retire.
In a meeting with the Sun Herald on Thursday, Wicker said he had been happy in the U.S. House of Representatives, but he made a few calls to see whether he should consider trying to get Lott’s seat, vacated last month.
Wicker said he met with Gov. Haley Barbour on the last Friday of 2007 for about an hour and a half at Barbour’s office in Jackson, and came away with the feeling he was being “seriously considered” along with several other candidates to be appointed to Lott’s post. Barbour wanted to know whether Wicker would be in it for the long haul.
“I wouldn’t have gone through the process unless there was a fire in the belly,” Wicker said.
