LEAKESVILLE, Miss. — Trent Lott is reminiscing with supporters at the Rocky Creek Catfish Cottage, recalling the goat barbecues and Jaycee meetings that marked his first House campaign 33 years ago. But the senator draws the biggest whoops when he mentions the "little bump in the road" he hit in December 2002, when he was ousted as Senate majority leader after what some viewed as some nostalgic words about segregation.

All in Washington, D.C., thought he was finished. "But they don't know us as Mississippians," Lott chortles. "You get back up on it and you ride again."

It takes a certain determination for a politician to fall so spectacularly from grace and then refuse to go away. Lott, 63, a shipyard worker's son who grew up in Pascagoula, is clawing his way back to power because, well, he can't help himself.

"I'm just rooting around trying to find ways to be useful," Lott said, ticking off a few of his projects: helping to arrange a deal on the 2006 budget, working for passage of immigration reform and highway funding, and trying to quell a Democratic uprising over judicial nominations. "Maybe what I'm doing is what comes naturally to me."

Lott's demise after six years as majority leader and Republican leader was self-inflicted. At Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th-birthday party Dec. 5, 2002 — one month after the Republicans reclaimed control of the Senate from the Democrats — Lott noted Thurmond's 1948 run for president on the anti-civil-rights "Dixiecrat" ticket and said that "we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years" had Thurmond won. Lott insisted he was trying to flatter the old man, but the line triggered a national furor.

Lott apologized repeatedly; appeared on Black Entertainment Television to swear allegiance to civil rights, including affirmative action.

Nothing worked.

African Americans seethed, some conservatives joined liberals in calling for his resignation, and President Bush criticized him sharply. Lott resigned as majority leader-designate in late December and was succeeded by Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a favorite of the White House. While Frist is as conservative as Lott on many issues, Frist has a smoother image and the administration viewed him as a more reliable partner.

Consolation prize

Lott took his consolation prize, the chairmanship of the Rules and Administration Committee, and turned it into a power base for dispensing favors, such as new computers and extra office space. He increased his profile by helping to organize Bush's second inauguration in January.

Lott in recent months also has made a determined effort to ingratiate himself with some of the Senate leaders who helped depose him — although his relationship with the White House appears to remain strained. This new, cooperative spirit in the Senate has raised a few eyebrows among Lott's colleagues, who wonder whether he's plotting a leadership comeback.

Lott does little to discourage speculation that he might make another run at a leadership job. He finds Senate whip the most appealing post, because the whip is in the thick of everything but "doesn't have to make every damn decision," as Lott put it.

Next year is key

It all depends on how the next year or two shake out. Lott has to decide whether he will run for a fourth term in 2006, although he says that is his intention.

Frist plans to retire from the Senate next year, and his successor is all but certain to be Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the current majority whip.

Sen. Rick Santorum, the No. 3 Republican, is slotted to move into McConnell's current post. But Santorum is expected to face a re-election fight in Pennsylvania next year. If he loses, that could be Lott's opening.

Having nothing to lose has made Lott one of most of the colorful figures in the Senate and one of the few Republicans willing to stray from the party fold.

"I feel perfectly at liberty now to shoot at anyone," Lott told Rotary Club luncheon guests. He then proceeded to say of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, "His degree of arrogance just turns me off."

Another Lott target is a White House commission on military-base closings, which the senator views as a threat to installations in Mississippi. Hoping to slow the commission's work, he blocked the confirmation of the commission's designated chairman, Anthony Principi. Bush used his recess-appointment power two weeks ago to install Principi, along with eight other commission members, while Congress was away on an Easter break.

"He did what he had to," Lott said of Bush. "Everything in the Senate relates to everything else," Lott said cheerfully. "I'm never done."

Some observers, including senators and aides who do not care for Lott, speculate that he is engaging in advance damage control, in the event his forthcoming memoir portrays those behind his downfall in a harsh light.

Lott says the book will look broadly at his entire career. But he said he does "make it clear" that he was not pleased with how Bush responded to the controversy over his 2002 Thurmond birthday-party remarks, and that "I would have been leader today if Frist hadn't made his move."