PASCAGOULA - Ask almost any customer at Scranton's restaurant, and they'll tell you U.S. Sen. Trent Lott is no less than a hero, despite his dramatic fall as the Senate's top Republican nearly a year ago.
Few in his Gulf Coast hometown even remember the racial remark that cost Lott his job as Senate majority leader, said Scranton's co-owner, Richard Chenoweth.
"This is gossip central. Nobody's talking about it," Chenoweth said.
For his part, Lott, once one of the most powerful Republicans on Capitol Hill, doesn't like to dwell on the events that forced his resignation.
"I hate to keep writing the story over and over and over again," Lott said before abruptly changing the subject during a recent telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Lott triggered an uproar Dec. 5, 2002, when he remarked at the 100th birthday of Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., that Mississippians were proud to have supported Thurmond for president when he ran in 1948 as a segregationist. "And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either," he said.
With his job and political future at stake, Lott apologized and announced a change of heart on some civil rights issues. He went on Black Entertainment Television to ask black Americans for forgiveness. He even promised to use his position to help push through initiatives that would benefit minorities.
But as pressure mounted and the Bush administration's support for him stayed lukewarm, Lott eventually resigned as majority leader.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said he does not think Lott can show where he has reached out to minorities.
"If he takes the argument that 'every time I support something it helps all Mississippians' … That's not the case," Thompson said.
"Has he outreached to those organizations that were critical of him during that time - the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus, God knows whoever? That's part of the healing process," Thompson said. "What have you done within the last year to show you support affirmative action?"
Lott, who is serving his third Senate term, insists his record speaks for itself. He said he supports Head Start, a federal preschool program for poor children, and was one of the lead sponsors of a bill to address the technology gap at historically black universities.
"We passed it through the Senate. I spoke on the floor about it," Lott said. "These are things you do on a human basis - not just because it would benefit one race over the other - because it's the fair thing to do."
Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Governmental Studies, said Lott's promises would have "all applied if he stayed as majority leader."
Lott was replaced by Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Sabato said while Lott's profile has diminished in Washington, the senator now has the advantage of "being his own man again and not having to respond merely to presidential pressure."
Lott remains popular in Mississippi, especially among whites, who make up a majority of residents. A poll commissioned in late October by The Associated Press and The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson found 69 percent of respondents said they had a favorable opinion of Lott, better than even President Bush.
Lott won his first try for the Senate in 1988 with 54 percent of the vote, was re-elected in 1994 with 69 percent and again in 2000 with close to 66 percent.
He took the 2000 victory with just 5 percent of the black vote in a state where 36 percent of voters are minorities.
During 30 years of public service, Lott mixed a fierce devotion to Southern history, including the Confederacy, with a political ideology that federal legislation should not try to rectify past discriminations or wrongs.
U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said Lott is an advocate for all Mississippians.
"We've had a close working relationship for 30 years," Cochran said. "This year is no different in that we continue to work together and to try to advance the interests of the people of our state."
Cochran said Lott still is well respected as chairman of the Senate Rules Committee and the aviation subcommittee.
Chenoweth said he recently saw the senator on television and thought "he was still the Republican leader."
"He comes in here every once in a while for lunch or dinner. The man hadn't changed," Chenoweth says. "He's really funny, got a great personality, always cracking jokes."
Lott said he has more freedom to work for Mississippi, where he secured funds for the recently completed $48 million high-rise bridge near Northrop Grumman Ingalls shipbuilding operations, the state's largest private employer. He also helped negotiate the deal for a $30 million Corus Bi-Steel manufacturing plant in Pascagoula.
"I guess you have to work harder to get some things done for your state, but you have the time to do it. It tends to balance out," Lott said.
Pointing to the new eight-lane bridge that replaced an antiquated drawbridge over the rambling Pascagoula River, Jackson County Supervisor Tim Broussard said it's a symbol of Lott's importance to south Mississippi.
"He's been up there for years and years and years. And all of the contacts, not only through Congress, but the United States and international, they're still in place," Broussard said. "Just because he stepped down doesn't mean those contacts are separate or that they somehow become less effective."
Curley Clark, president of the Moss Point-Jackson County branch of the NAACP, isn't satisfied with Lott's economic development achievements on the coast.
"I was hoping that he would try to get some of the black leadership together and form some sort of biracial task force and address some of the issues that continually divide us as Mississippians," Clark said. "We all have to live in this state together."
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