WP: Senate Setbacks Test Frist's Influence (Bush is to blame)

Senate Setbacks Test Frist's Influence
Bush Has Given Difficult Tasks to Him, Analysts Say

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 29, 2005; Page A05

For someone with the lofty title of Senate majority leader, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has had a terrible week. Last Monday, a curious mix of 14 senators took control of the judicial filibuster issue and crafted a compromise that left Frist grumbling from the outside. On Thursday, he stood glumly on the Senate floor as his party failed to pick up the half-dozen Democrats it needed to end debate on John R. Bolton's nomination to be U.N. ambassador.

The four-day stretch was so dismal that a Los Angeles Times editorial headlined "The Frist Problem" suggested he quit his post if he really wants to run for president in 2008, as many expect.

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No one did more than Bush to help Frist, a heart surgeon from Tennessee, become majority leader after Lott praised a segregationist presidential campaign in December 2002. But Bush played big roles in this week's setbacks, some Republicans and Democrats say, largely through his acrimonious relationship with Democrats, who still wield influence in the 100-member body.

-snip-
"Bush makes Frist's job much more difficult than it need be," said congressional scholar Thomas E. Mann of the Brookings Institution. "Renominating the seven without any consultation or accommodation ensured a major battle on judicial nominees, one Frist could win only by taking down the Senate as a unique institution." As for Bolton, Mann said: "The Bush White House's insistence on information-control has poisoned the relationship with Congress. . . . They hung Frist out to dry."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/28/AR2005052800893.html

nt

Monday's showdown over judicial appointments, they note, was set in motion when Bush renominated seven judges who were blocked by the Democrats in his first term, even though Senate Republicans continue to lack a filibuster-proof majority. Democrats said they saw it as a deliberate provocation, and Frist had no clear strategy for breaking their solid resistance. When Frist threatened to end judicial filibusters with a rules change, seven Democrats and seven Republicans -- led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- scrambled to cut a deal without him.

He was bound to need more White House help than did up-through-the-ranks predecessors such as Lott and Dole, they said, but sometimes Bush seemed to dump tough problems at his door and walk away.


Bush is an arrogant SOB and Frisk is paying the price. They will probably get rid of Frisk if he doesn't manage to pull this off. I don't like Frisk, but he's been given a tough job. You know the old saying about employers--"They use you up and toss you out like a used kleenex." Frisk may find out all about used kleenex.

Sure, he's being used up and spit out by the thugs in the White House, but he signed up for it. Frist thought he was on top of the world, nowhere to go but up, laughing at the little people, and so on. Now he's being chewed up and discarded. In 30 years, only a few old people will remember his name. He'll go down in history as a mediocre suckup enabler of Bush, but that history won't take too many lines in any history book. Throw him out with the trash.

He's just getting some of his own back. I am laughing at Bush thinking he can wave his magic wand and someone will do the fetching for him. Looks like Frisk wasn't up to the job.

The dumb asses threw out Lott--probably because he told Bush that his "plans" for his second term wouldn't fly in the Senate. The Bush gang then looked around for a "Yes" man. And who should appear but Frisk.

Bush and the gang are finding out that "Yes" men will tell you "yes" but sometimes that's all you get. I think it's good that "Yes man Frisk" is the leader of the Senate. Lott probably would have been a much more effective.

Just wonderin'.

I was tired when I posted, but "Frisky Frist" has a certain ring to it. Peace.

Or maybe just "Frisky." It demeans him (and he certainly should be demeaned) as a BushCo "pet."

Go fetch up some "yes" votes for your master. If you don't fetch, you'll be spending the night in the doghouse.

I like the way you think.

Bush Has Given Difficult Tasks to Him, Analysts Say

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 29, 2005; Page A05

For someone with the lofty title of Senate majority leader, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has had a terrible week. Last Monday, a curious mix of 14 senators took control of the judicial filibuster issue and crafted a compromise that left Frist grumbling from the outside. On Thursday, he stood glumly on the Senate floor as his party failed to pick up the half-dozen Democrats it needed to end debate on John R. Bolton's nomination to be U.N. ambassador.

The four-day stretch was so dismal that a Los Angeles Times editorial headlined "The Frist Problem" suggested he quit his post if he really wants to run for president in 2008, as many expect.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/28/AR2005052800893.html

See also

"Reid takes control of Frist's Senate
A maddening week for the majority leader"

at http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8006390/

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Reid seems to have become Frist's Dementor, the frightening creature in the Harry Potter saga. According to one reference work, "Those kept in the company of a Dementor for too long are often driven insane" and it wouldn't be surprising by week's end if Frist felt he was succumbing to that fate.
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http://www.cafepress.com/kickindemocrats

so be it.

"with Frist left grumbling on the outside...." aaawww poor baby.... :rofl:

is WaPo finally waking from it's coma?

...took a look at the papers, and saw GOOD NEWS right off the mark! YEARS!!! "The Bush White House's insistence on information-control has poisoned the relationship with Congress. . . . They hung Frist out to dry."

Are we witnessing the birth of a new turn of phrase? When you cannot get it done, when your boss continues to crap on you and petulantly demand his own way, when your associates go around you and ignore you, is that called, now, "Getting Fristed?"

It certainly couldn't happen to a 'nicer' guy...MEOW!

Frist can fry as long as the Dems actually have no power and have given up the filibuster.

This is literally crazymaking for Dems because we have utterly caved in giving up the system of checks and balances..

.. a very bad thing for everyone.

Sue

is how I see Frist at the moment.

but owens is on the bench.
that's one more ultra right wing reactionary judge than before.

frist might lose -- but the gop wins.

now on Matthews show the other day.He was spitting mad.It was very entertaining watching the veins in his head pop out.

Serves them right for fronting a total brainless idiot for president just because of his big ol Daddy!!!:popcorn: