I'll go ahead and give this race two stars, but it might not stay that way for long. The rating depends on Sen. Trent Lott's plans. In recent months, he has indicated an interest in getting out of politics. He was forced to resign as Republican Senate Majority Leader in 2002 after he claimed that America would have been better off if Strom Thurmond had been elected President in 1948. He ran on a segregationist platform that year. Now to be fair to Lott, he did say this to Thurmond on his 100th year birthday party and he probably didn't mean to imply that America would have been better off with segregation. I'm certain that he wasn't looking for this controversy. At any rate, he thinks that his congressional career has already peaked. Hurricane Katrina also hit him very hard, for he lost his home during the storm, which also doubled as his nest egg. He's thinking about getting a new job with a better salary. If he does retire from the Senate, look for this race to become a lot more interesting, with more than likely a conservative Democrat like Representative Gene Taylor running against a conservative Republican. If Lott stays in the Senate, he will be re-elected by a large margin. Like most Southern senators, he has a very good reputation for constituent service, and the voters usually reward representatives like this with re-election. If the seat opens up, the race will be very competitive.