Bill Frist Must Go

Choosing someone to lead the Republicans in the United States Senate is not an easy task. Looking back, Senator Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.) was probably the last really effective leader the Republicans have had. He was a man of great wit and charm, he had an excellent command of the English language, he knew exactly how to deal with the Democrats, and he knew how to keep his “independent- minded” moderates in check. In Dirksen’s time, (1959-69) loose cannons such as Chuck Hagel (R-Nebr.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Lincoln Chaffee (R-R.I.) would not have been before the TV cameras, pandering to the “drive-by” media. They wouldn’t have dared to cross Dirksen. And if they did, there would have been a heavy price to pay.

But, of course, Dirksen’s opposite number, Senator Mike Mansfield (D-Mont.) was no Harry Reid.  Mansfield was a Democratic partisan, to be sure, but he was also a gentleman of the Old West – the strong, silent type – who went on to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Japan. Unlike Democratic leaders of today, Mansfield always put the best interests of his country and its people ahead of what was in the best interests of his party.

The current majority leader, Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), may have been an excellent heart surgeon before entering elective politics, but he is simply no match for his Democratic counterpart, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.), a man who simply does not care what he says or does, so long as it helps gain Democratic seats in the next election. For men like Reid, their service in the United States Senate is not so much about governing, or doing what’s best for the people, as it is about playing political “gotcha” and helping Democrats regain control of the White House and the Congress.

I cannot imagine a more damning thing to say about a member of the United States Senate.

We see Senator Reid often as he emerges from a bi-partisan leadership meeting on Capitol Hill, or on the White House lawn after meeting with the president. And in those instances, while he is in “mixed company,” he is all sweetness and light. He almost appears to be a decent man. But in another setting, when he is surrounded only by his Democratic colleagues – Kennedy, Kerry, Clinton, Durbin, Biden, et al – his tongue turns to acid and he quickly becomes a vicious partisan attack dog.

He is reminiscent of some of the few racists I’ve met in my lifetime. When they’re out drinking with their buddies, in places where black people seldom congregate, they’re full of tales about past confrontations with black people and hardly a sentence passes their lips without at least one mention of the “n-word.” But put them into a multi-racial situation, where a number of black people are present, and they become so patronizing of their black companions that one would think they’d been elected president of the local NAACP chapter. 

Harry Reid is such a man, and Bill Frist is simply no match for a man of such low character. 

As recently as a year ago, Republicans were in a position to gain seats in the 2006 mid-term elections.  A number of Democratic seats were vulnerable and capable of being won by strong Republican candidates.  These included Robert “KKK” Byrd (D-W.Va.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), John Corzine (D-N.J.), Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Ben Nelson (D-Nebr.), and Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.). 

With strong Republican leadership in the Senate, at least five of those seats can still be won by Republicans. Unfortunately, the current crop of Republican leaders will be best remembered for three things: 1) their affection for over-spending through “earmarked” appropriations; 2) their plan to deal with the immigration problem by asking illegals how long they’ve been here: more than five years, more than two but less than five years, or less than two years; and 3) the pitiful Republican-sponsored bill to provide every American family with $100 to help them buy a couple of tanks of gasoline. 

Democrats have named the game, and the only choice Republicans have is to either play that game…or lose. And as matters now stand, just months before the 2006 mid-term elections, they are losing. Frist appears to be an extremely nice man, but he is simply no match for Harry Reid and the other sharks who swim on the Democratic side of the aisle. He must step aside, and he should take Speaker Dennis Hastert with him. Please!