Republicans yesterday elected Mississippi’s Trent Lott to be their new Senate majority leader, voting 44 to 8. Lott said he plans to follow in the path of his predecessor, Bob Dole.

Sen. Trent Lott: “We do want to control the size and scope of government. We do want to return decisions back to individuals and state and local governments. We do want entitlement reform for the security of those programs and the future of our children being able to rely on that. We do want to control the rate of growth of government.”

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott is a close ally of House Speaker Newt Gingrich.