CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Our Jonathan Karl has more on the Mississippi's senator campaign to save his leadership position.</s>JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): With his fate as majority leader hanging in the balance, Senator Trent Lott issued yet another mea culpa; this time, in an interview on Black Entertainment Television. He apologized, and apologized not only for his words at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party, but also for many things back over the course of his career. He acknowledged that when he grew up and came of age in the segregated south that he, too, believed in segregation and was an advocate of segregation. He also acknowledged mistakes he said that he has made over the course of his career in Congress. One of his mistakes, he said, was his vote in 1983 against the making of a federal holiday for Martin Luther King's birthday. That vote, Trent Lott said, was mistake. He said that at the time of that vote back in 1983, he did not fully appreciate the importance of Dr. King's place in American history. Now, he says, he clearly does, and if he had an opportunity to make that vote again, he would vote in favor of the federal holiday. But Trent Lott faces an uphill battle, because his Republican colleagues have now agreed to convene a special conference in January to come together, all 51 Republicans, to decide whether or not they want Trent Lott to continue as their leader. The mere fact that they are holding this conference, after Trent Lott was just last month elected majority leader, the mere fact they're coming together to decide this yet again shows just how perilous his situation is. Back to you.</s>COSTELLO: Indeed it is.
Lott's Troubles: BET Mea Culpa