Trent Lott's threats of retirement strike me as a fairly obvious ploy:
"Mississippi, one of the reddest of the red Republican states, has not even been on the game board of the Washington analysis forecasting the 2006 Senate outcome. But in Mississippi, prominent Republicans are worried sick. They believe Lott will probably retire. If so, they expect the new senator will be a Democrat, former state Attorney General Mike Moore. Republican politicians in Mississippi believe Rep. Chip Pickering, the likely Republican nominee if Lott does not run, cannot defeat Moore."
That's from Novak's column, which Markos thinks came from Republican bigwigs hoping to scare Lott into running for reelection. My guess is quite the opposite. Nobody knows Mississippi's politics better than Lott. Which is why this story likely came from him -- he's not going to read Novak's column in order to get a read on his constituents. Instead, he's hoping Elizabeth Dole and Bill Frist will scan the piece, fear a loss, beg Lott to run, and accept his eventual reentry into the leadership as the cost of retaining the seat.
