We can ascribe with horror motives to Republican US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's about face on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. They are plainly discernible. Confronted with an advertising campaign in New Hampshire (not in the Senator's home state of Tennessee) the Senator displayed all the leadership we've come to expect from him, the bugle call of retreat. Let no principle stand in Frist's way when he decides to turn about and flee in the face of opposition - it will get trampled.
It's enough to wonder if Senator Frist is French.
That the advertising took place in New Hampshire, and that Senator Frist was concerned about it, is notable because of New Hampshire's status as the site of the first presidential primary of 2008.
So we note Senator Frist must harbor ambitions beyond re-election as a US Senator from Tennessee. He must. And yet we cannot but wonder what is the source of this ambition and on what platform is it built? On what, we may ask, does Senator Frist possibly hope to build a successful presidential campaign in 2008?
Frist's record as US Senate Majority Leader is a record of failure. Yes, he does get some credit for presiding over a fractious bunch who represent the entire Republican Party spectrum, and then some. But weighing against such mitigation is the knowledge Frist leads a 55-45 majority with the Vice President available to break a tie if necessary.
Despite the majority, today the President had to use a recess appointment to make John Bolton our Ambassador to the United Nations. Despite the majority, a deal had to be made with the minority party that involved the sacrifice of two of the President's judicial nominations in order for the other nominations to go through. Despite the majority, the President had to nominate to the US Supreme Court a "stealth" candidate because he could not trust the Senate to fight for his nominee.
Despite the legislative successes of the past week, including the passage of CAFTA, Senator Frist snatched defeat from victory with his flip-flop on stem cell research, thereby taking attention away from the few accomplishments his tenure can boast.
Given this pattern of failure, this lack of leadership, this inability to use his power in Washington for good ends, this political tone deafness, we ask again, what could possibly cause Senator Frist to believe he could be, or even should be, President of the United States?
