If Senator Frist, the Republican majority leader in the US Senate, has any desire to be president, these next two weeks are the time he either proves himself as a Conservative leader or starts planning his return to the full-time practive of medicine.
First on the list is the embattled nomination of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. Democrats, fearful that a UN Ambassador might actually represent the President's views on foreign policy to that less than august body, have dragged up every slander and unsubstantiated allegation they can find. So far the worst they've been able to find is that Bolton may be impatient with subordinates. Frist needs to show that a Republican majority in the US Senate means something and lean on the Republicans to push this nomination out of committee to the full Senate where he'll be easily confirmed. Currently the vote is set for Thursday.
And then Senator Frist must act to push through the President's nominees for the federal judiciary. Currently there's a real chance a group of Republican Senators led by Senator Trent Lott may reach a compromise with the Democrats to allow some of the President's nominees but not all of them. This is unacceptable. Senator Frist needs to take control of his majority, squelch the so-called compromise, and make the Democrats end their filibusters against the President's nominees. If the Democrats will not agree to the allow the nominees to come up for a vote, Senator Frist should move to end the filibusters procedurally and call the Democrat's bluff.
If the majority leader cannot muster the 50 votes needed to end the filibusters when his party has a 56-44 majority he should resign as leader and plan on not running for re-election in 2006. He will have proven himself ineffective, and his failures will have demoralized his party's electoral base heading into midterm elections that historically are rough for the party in power.
