and our -- one of our guys on the staff called and said do you know what trent lott said? i said, i said don't worry about that. he said, how can you say that? he's supposed to be working. i said let me tell you what happened. trent lott agreed to be on a sunday morning show before he thought about it. he was exhausted all weekend because we had been working long hours. he got up early in a bad mood and somebody goaded him and he took the bait. that's all. i called lott and he said, oh, my god, you're calling. i said i'm calling to tell you i've already forgotten about this. he said why. i said because you shouldn't have done this, you why too tired. woke up exhausted and somebody goaded you and you have took the bait. he said that's what happened. that's what happens when you know somebody as a person as well as a political opponent. when you cut people a little slack and you realize that doesn't have anything to do with the job. you just work on getting the job done. when we hung lott's portrait in the capitol, newt gingrich and i