Trent Lott and His Lot Are Back

Despite continued Republican disappointment with the November elections, GOP Senators stayed with their leadership Tuesday. The cantakerous House, it wasn't. "It takes more to have a revolution in the Senate, " says TIME Congressional Correspondent John Dickerson. That's the way the Founders of the Constitution crafted the more deliberative and conservative upper chamber. And that's the way the Senate voted today on the question of who will lead Republican Senators in the new Congress.

To no one's surprise, Senate Republicans re-elected Majority Leader Trent Lott and the rest of the top GOP line-up. Nary a pol, including Oklahoma Senator Don Nickles, the number 2 Republican in the chamber and the likeliest challenger, was interested in staging a disruptive coup against Lott. "Casting aside Gingrich as House Speaker has diminished much of the blood lust," notes Dickerson.