Sen. Trent Lott pulled an interesting gambit this week during a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee, trying to drive a wedge in the insurance industry lobby on his call to revoke McCarran-Ferguson's limited antitrust exemption by offering small carriers a “safe harbor” to allow them to keep sharing data. Will it work?

Our Washington office reported (click here for the full story) that Sen. Lott accused major insurers of hiding behind small carriers to protect their antitrust immunity. He graciously proposed making concerns over how small companies could survive such a radical development a non-issue.

The Mississippi Republican–who has an axe to grind with insurers after his own Hurricane Katrina claim was denied under the standard flood exclusion–failed to detail how he would define “small” insurer. He mentioned something about a $2 billion ceiling, but it's not clear whether that means exposure, policyholder surplus, reserves or some other factor. He probably doesn't know himself right now.