Trent and Mitch

As you’ve no doubt heard, Trent Lott will announce that he has decided to spend more time with his K Street friends.

Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott(R-Miss.) is planning on resigning from the Senate this year and maymake a formal announcement as soon as today.

If he resigns, Lottwould become the sixth Republican senator to announce they werestepping down this election cycle. His term expires in 2012; and aresignation would prompt a special election to fill the remainder ofhis term.  Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) would be tasked with appointinga replacement for Lott to serve before the special election is held.

I’m glad to see Trent go (though Haley Barbour is bound to appoint someone just as awful to replace him). But I’m most intrigued by what Trent’s departure will do to Senate leadership. After all, the Republicans have actually done better in the minority than they were doing in the majority. That’s partly because Republicans just better at obnoxiously obstructing legislation than actually governing. But it’s also because Mitch McConnell and Trent Lott are masters of parliamentary procedures. So switching Bill Frist, in the majority, for McConnell and Lott, in the minority, was a significant step up for the Republicans.

Well, the Republicans may lose Lott imminently, and McConnell is facing a surprisingly tough re-election campaign in KY.

I’ve long said that I could be happy with any of the top three Democratic candidates for President, but that we’d really be much better off with five more Senate seats in Democratic hands. Imagine how much more fun we’d have–if we got those five seats–without Mitch and Trent to muck things up in the Senate.

Update: Chris Bowers has the best analysis of Trent’s fork in our eye I’ve seen yet.