But it looks very likely he will stay in the Senate.
The Lott buzz: Gone in days
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, under pressure from colleagues and the White House to give up his post instead of face a January vote of confidence, may give in as soon as this weekend, predict key Senate Republican aides. In fact, they're already discussing Lott's post-majority-leader career, suggesting that he might be handed the chairmanship of a key committee for "doing the right thing," says one aide.

As his comments at a birthday party for Sen. Strom Thurmond and his subsequent apologies continued to ripple through Washington yesterday, fellow Republican senators began adopting President Bush's position of nonsupport for Lott. That, say aides, is a clear signal that he has lost the confidence of his caucus. "All he has to do," says one, "is read the first sentence in the New York Times lead today to see it's over." That story begins: "Republicans with close ties to the Bush administration said today that Sen. Trent Lott had no chance of remaining majority leader and that the White House wanted him out."

For his part, Lott is standing firm. Allies say he was bolstered when civil rights leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis accepted Lott's apology. In fact, some black political leaders suggested that Lott's experience would make him sensitive and sympathetic to African-American causes. But other GOP officials worried about a wounded Lott being beholden to his critics, to which a Lott associate told Whispers: "Senator Lott is beholden to his GOP senators and the state of Mississippi."