NO SCRUGGS Lott, Dickie (inset) (Photo: Getty Images)
Washington insiders trying to wrap their heads around Trent Lott's sudden senate resignation announcement this week have another helping of red meat to chew on: Wednesday's indictment of prominent Mississippi attorney—Lott's brother-in-law—Richard "Dickie" Scruggs.

Lott is not named in the indictment. However, during his time in the senate, his legislative actions dovetailed with Scruggs's more controversial (and financially lucrative) cases.

Scruggs and his firm fought insurance companies on behalf of Katrina victims in Mississippi, where Lott lost a home (and George W. Bush lost a front porch hangout). Then another lawyer in those cases sued for a larger cut of the $26.5 million in attorneys' fees. According to the new indictments, Scruggs, his son (Lott's newphew), and several other attorneys offered the judge in that suit $50,000 (actually handing over $20,000) to rule in their favor.

Scruggs made his mark by suing big tobacco on behalf of the state of Mississippi in the mid-'90s, ultimately netting a $368 billion settlement for the state. Frontline has accused Scruggs of using "key connections" in Washington to lobby for harsher penalties on tobacco companies, including even stiffer financial payouts. In 1998, Lott, then majority-leader, bucked conventional political wisdom and the wishes of his constituents in tobacco-rich Mississippi by backing John McCain's ill-fated tobacco bill, before eventually being forced to yank his support due to election-year pressure.

After Hurricane Katrina, the two men launched a dual offensive against negligent insurance companies, with Lott hammering away in the Capitol, and Scruggs bringing a class-action lawsuit against State Farm (Lott was one of the plaintiffs). And there's Lott's not-so-subtle declaration of a no-holds-barred cage match against his insurance provider, dropped in a conversation with the CEO of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. Lott reportedly said he would spend the rest of his career "bringing down State Farm and the industry."