As Lott Goes, So Go Conservatives

Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott announced Monday he will leave his post by the end of the year, thus finishing three decades of service to the Republican Party, along with the few final hopes conservatives had left for the 2008 election cycle.

Lott's retirement announcement is yet another indicator of the GOP’s waning influence on Washington politics. Certainly, had things been going well for Republicans – and conservatives by extension – Lott and fellow retiree Dennis Hastert wouldn’t have stepped down quite so early (Hastert, former House Speaker, has one year remaining on his term – Lott has five).

With the increasing failure of conservatives to find a consensus candidate for the presidential nomination, and more and more Americans finding the conservative message distasteful thanks to a permeating lack of leadership, losing Trent Lott to the private sector is a devastating blow.

Lott says the prospect of his party being in the Congressional minority doesn’t bother him – it’s one he’s dealt with six times over his 34-year Congressional career, but I think the writing on the wall for his beloved GOP was simply too much for him to bear. After all, the bleak outlook for Republicans -- and conservatives in general -- is looking bleaker by the moment.

Without Lott in Washington to help forward the conservative agenda in 2008, conservatives would do well to focus their energy on finding a single galvanizing candidate for the upcoming presidential election. If they don't, the conservative movement might very well fade into the political shadows for the next eight years.