Sen. Trent Lott has made a triumphal return from backbench obscurity to front-row leadership as Senate Republican whip, making himself essential to the party's leadership now in minority status.

Rank-and-file GOP senators see Mitch McConnell as far preferable to the departed Bill Frist as the party's leader in the Senate. But they consider Lott the invaluable wise old hand with experience working in a Republican minority. He was House minority whip in 1981-1988 and was elected Senate majority whip after the 1994 elections before becoming majority leader in 1996.

The irony of Lott's political resurrection is that he was forced out as majority leader in December 2002 thanks to loss of support from President George W. Bush, who is now held in low esteem by Republican senators.

LOUISIANA HAYRIDE

The decision by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco not to seek re-election this year leaves the state's Democrats high and dry, uncertain whether former Sen. John Breaux will launch a late candidacy with no campaign money yet raised.

Louisiana Democrats are stunned that Blanco did not make a deal with Breaux to try to succeed her before she bowed out. The only record of fund-raising this year by Breaux, a multimillionaire Washington lobbyist, is an event for Blanco last month.

Blanco narrowly defeated Republican Bobby Jindal in 2003. But she has trailed Jindal, now a member of Congress, badly in the polls following her much criticized handling of Hurricane Katrina. Breaux, a popular figure during 32 years' service in the House and Senate, is the only Democrat given a chance to defeat Jindal (though one poll shows him also losing).