Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, of all people, should know better than to accuse Vermont Sen. James Jeffords of a “coup of one” which turned control of the Senate over to Democrats.

Here are Lott’s reported words: “The decision of one man has, however else you describe it, trumped the will of the American people.”

If you didn’t know Lott was talking about Jeffords, who would you think he was describing? It could be Dubya himself, who lost the popular vote and probably the electoral vote but became president; or Dubya’s brother Jeb, who delivered Florida, or perhaps any one of five Supreme Court justices.

I didn’t know the Republican leadership had such a sense of humor.

Jerome Nadelhaft

Bangor