Trent Lott’s Seersucker Crusade Off to a Slow Start
When Congress cancelled Seersucker Thursday, the cross-party dress-up Lott organized in the ’90’s, this year, presumably thinking that dressing like a drunk-by-noon plantation master isn’t the best move, the Post’s Dana Milbank lamented the death of another bipartisan tradition. But seersucker was always more about power than bipartisanship—showing that you have so much of it that you can wear pajamas to work.
That’s why Lott, out of office and essentially a lure for a restaurant’s drink deals (he’s now ensconced at lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs) looked like he was pre-gaming a horse race involving his own horse, while the other men in seersucker looked like quirky promgoers.
But Lott has another theory.
“They didn’t want to do something that looks like they’re, forgive me, having fun,” he said.
Lott chatted with restaurant staff, reporters, and the four or five actual customers who showed up. He explained the rules of seersucker footwear (white bucks: yes; saddle shoes: OK; black shoes: are you crazy?), and told the stories you would imagine Trent Lott would tell. (Did you know he was one of the Singing Senators? Yes, you did. So did we.)
“In Mississippi, I also raise chickens,” Lott said at one point, holding out his iPhone. “Isn’t that a funny-looking chicken?”
Washington City Paper
7/31/12
Magnolia Tribune
