Trent Lott `Won't Be a Bob Dole'

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TRENT LOTT, talking recently to senior citizens, mused about how lonely it was seeking a House seat as a Republican in rural Mississippi 25 years ago.

"Many places I would go in that congressional district, I was the first live Republican they'd ever seen," Lott said.

"I'd go to these small towns, and they would come out from the stores: `There's a Republican in town. You ever see one?' "

The brash senator with the bass Southern drawl has been raising eyebrows ever since. Now, in replacing Sen. Bob Dole as majority leader, Lott becomes the pace-setter for a Senate that has become younger, more conservative and more confrontational.

"He won't be a Bob …