Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott reacts to a question on whether the shift of power will make Republicans more thoughtful about their actions.
While World War II veterans around the nation observed the anniversary of D-Day on Wednesday, some in Washington were celebrating a victory of their own as Democrats took control of the Senate for the first time since 1994.
Newly appointed Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle beamed with pride on the Democrats gaining more power, but promised to continue the process of bipartisan relations between the two political parties despite their fundamental differences.
"My message will be, let's find a way to work together," he told members of the Senate during his opening remarks, "whether it's education, (a) patients' bill of rights, or making up new jokes about how dumb the president is."
Daschle replaced longtime Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) who now becomes minority leader of the Senate. Despite being in the minority, Lott has vowed the Republicans would fight to continue pushing President Bush's agenda on the American public.
"The fight for the right has only just begun," Lott told reporters earlier in the morning, "and we will not rest until our beloved leader is enthroned as the demigod he is. And we'd still like to see the liberals in this country jailed or lying naked and beaten in the streets for their political views. That's what America is all about."
Lott, who once made the Guinness Book of World Records as the only senator to take office without a heart or a soul, also had harsh words for Senator James Jeffords, whose defection to independent status caused the shift of power.
"What he did is unforgivable," seethed Lott. "The American public never voted to put Democrats in charge of the Senate, or anything else for that matter. What Jim did was trump the will of the American people and put someone in power who never should have been there in the first place. Let me tell you something, that's not the job of a senator from Vermont, no sir. That's the job of the Supreme Court."
