New generation more bipartisan, Trent Lott says
Former Sen. Trent Lott told a conference of educators Sunday night the next generation of politicians in Congress won’t be as partisan and mean-spirited as those the country has now.
Lott, who retired mid-term in 2007 and took up lobbying, spoke at the Beau Rivage to an association of universities large and small, hosted by his alma mater Ole Miss. He said he was on the Coast for a few days visiting family and friends in Pascagoula and will be back in Washington next week.
As keynote speaker for the four-day conference, he told the group partisanship is worse now than he’d ever seen it in his nearly four decades in Congress.
He blamed it on the “times we live in.”
But, he said, “part of it is us. Our generation, that came through the ’60s and the ’70s and the civil rights era and the Vietnam War and the partisanship of the late ’70s hardened us into partisan warriors,” he said.
“We’re still kind of fighting that,” he said. “I tell you that to give you the good news. The next generation is better. The young men and women you see coming up through the ranks today, their attitude is better.”
Sun-Herald
11/2/9
