Lott Seen As Scapegoat to Help Party Look Inclusive

Republican senators yesterday anointed a White House protege as their leader in an unprecedented telephone conference call.

The election by acclamation of Bill Frist, 50, a wealthy heart transplant surgeon from Tennessee, was seen as a victory for President George Bush in his attempt to promote a more modern agenda for the Republican party.

The manner of electing Mr Frist - a relative newcomer to politics who is famous for not voting until he reached the age of 36 - indicates the eagerness of Republicans to put behind them the controversy over the undisguised longing of their former leader, Trent Lott, for the days of racial segregation in the United States.

More than two weeks after Mr Lott's offensive remarks, a few commentators have begun to look more closely at the notion that the veteran senator from Mississippi is not alone in yearning for the old South.

There are, they point out, currently no black members in the 100-seat Senate.

Some commentators have argued that Mr Lott was a convenient scapegoat for a White House which wants to project the image of inclusiveness without having to embrace real change.

"Many of those Republicans who have been so desperate to hustle Lott off the stage don't have any issue with his legislative record," wrote William Raspberry in yesterday's Washington Post.

That is not a view the White House would like to encourage as it begins to plan for the presidential election in November 2004.

Republican strategists have been quoted as saying in recent days that the party has "maxed out" on its traditional areas of support from white voters, and needed to broaden its base.

Mr Frist becomes the symbol of that search, and the manner in which he came to his new job yesterday is not expected to allay charges that he is a tool of the White House.

It may also fail to rebut the charge that the Republican party offers a home to racists.

The Democrats have begun to question Mr Frist's membership in a whites-only country club in Tennessee, and his voting record on civil rights issues, which closely mirrors that of Mr Lott.

Mr Frist, who is only part-way through his second term in the Senate, is relatively junior for the pivotal post, particularly at a time when the balance of power is so close between Republicans and Democrats.

Party sources said that he is expected to rely heavily on more senior Republicans for the day-to-day battles in the Senate, and concentrate his energies on projecting a Republican face that is regarded as more acceptable to moderate whites - who were turned off by Mr Lott - as well as minorities.