Despite having had his heart in the right place, Nixon was not a team player.

Did Nixon possess the lost the art of legislating?

Does that art consist in the ruthless pursuit of power on behalf of one's own megalomaniacal interests, or on behalf of the interests of one's party?

Since no one remains naive enough to make more than a campaign slogan out of "the good of the country" or "the good of the people", a socially minded legislator must fight for the good of his party, and, indeed, we can conclude that Nixon was not partisan enough. Even at his worst moments he wasn't partisan enough.

Lott, like his proverbial wife, seems a little paralytic in his logic looking back at that historical lesson.