Senate Leader Adds Insult to Injury

WASHINGTON — President Clinton got no sympathy from Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who took the occasion of the president’s injury to poke a little partisan fun.

“Somebody said they’re going to do fund-raisers by allowing folks to sign his cast,” Lott told a gathering of Republican women in an apparent reference to the Democrats’ fund-raising controversy.

In a joking reference to a phrase Clinton has used to show commiseration, Lott said he was going to telephone Clinton and tell him, “Mr. President, we feel your pain.”

Noting that Clinton was going to remain conscious during his surgery, Lott said, “Mr. President, we also appreciate the fact that you’re not going to be put under, because we wouldn’t want you to hand off your presidency, even temporarily, to Al Gore.”