Trent Lott, Bounding Back From the Storms

Trent Lott is back!

Not that he ever left, but speculation was abounding that Lott, 64, would be history after this year, and checkered history at that. It went beyond speculation, the Mississippi Republican said yesterday. He and his wife, Tricia, decided five years ago that 2006 would be it for him, that he would not run for reelection.

But then came Katrina, "a disastrous event of biblical proportions," which demolished his waterfront home in Pascagoula. It got Lott thinking, praying, reassessing. And then, the day after Christmas, concluding "that I still have a zest for the job here in Washington."

So there was Lott in Washington yesterday morning, zesty as ever in a too-bright-for-Mississippi purple tie. He bounded into the Senate TV and radio gallery at 10:30. It was the last of three media events -- the first two were held in Mississippi on Tuesday -- in which Lott would announce his reelection bid for 2006 and who knows what else.

Speculation raged in the gallery of 26 reporters, cameramen and hangers-on. Would Lott challenge longtime colleague Mitch McConnell to become Senate majority leader again after Bill Frist retires? Would he run for Senate whip -- another position he'd previously held -- if prospective No. 2 Rick Santorum loses his reelection bid this year?

Ah, heck, let 'em speculate, Lott seemed to be saying with an exceedingly impish grin.

"I'm not announcing any campaign for anything else," Lott said unprompted, tipping up and down on his toes behind the lectern.

This spurred a predictable game of non-denial/denial ping-pong between Lott and his audience:

One reporter asked if Lott would take another run at leadership "off the table," and Lott said no, he's not taking anything "off the table."

Someone else asked if he would "rule anything out." To which Lott said no, he's "not ruling anything out."

And so it went: nothing ruled out, nothing off the table.

"He's tantalizing a few people, that's for sure," said Republican Thad Cochran, Lott's home-state colleague and sometime rival.