Lott Resigns From Senate

Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) resigned from the Senate late Tuesday night, creating a vacancy that Mississippi governor Haley Barbour (R) will be filling within the next ten days.

Lott is expected to take a lobbying position after waiting the required one year for sitting members of Congress to work as lobbyists. If he resigned after the end of the year, he would have been required to wait two years to lobby Congress.

Barbour is now tasked with choosing Lott’s replacement for the next year, and all eyes are on Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and retiring Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) as the most likely appointments. Whoever wins the governor’s appointment will likely be the odds-on favorite heading into a November 2008 special election for the remainder of Lott’s term.