Frist rejects offer

April 26, 2005

To follow up on the earlier post, Bill Frist’s reaction to Harry Reid’ compromise offer went exactly as expected: Frist said no.

Reacting to a Democratic offer in the fight over filibusters, Republican leader Bill Frist said Tuesday he isn’t interested in any deal that fails to ensure Senate confirmation for all of President Bush’s judicial nominees.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid had been quietly talking with Frist about confirming at least two of Bush’s blocked nominees from Michigan in exchange for withdrawing a third nominee. This would have been part of a compromise that would have the GOP back away from a showdown over changing Senate rules to prevent Democrats from using the filibuster to block Bush’s nominees.

But Frist, in a rare news conference conducted on the Senate floor, said he would not accept any deal that keeps his Republican majority from confirming judicial nominees that have been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Are we going to step back from that principle? The answer to that is no,” Frist said.

Stepping back, I think this is probably the way Reid wanted and expected this to play out. Reid’s offer for a compromise — which, again, helped Republicans more than Dems — generated broad media attention and led some on the Hill to think there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Frist, therefore, comes out of this looking like the guy who didn’t want to negotiate, didn’t like a sweet deal, and who prefers conflict to resolution.

In the broader chess game, it’s another good move for Reid.

It was a risky strategy, and I’m sure Harry Reid knew it. But he also knows his opponents, and he has the mental toughness to gamble on the other side’s stubbornness and lack of foresight.

Reid won bigtime on this one, and Frist has just dug his own political grave another foot deeper through his own ineptitude.

  • It warmed my heart when I saw the bold headline “Frist rejects Democratic compromise” on a google news link. This is spinning in just the right direction. Harry Reid continues to impress me. Hopefully “kitten-killer” Frist will end up in the private sector muttering “they told me I’d be welcomed with flowers”.

  • Maybe Jeebus Frist shouldn’t have quit his day job. He’s not exactly lighting things up as a majority leader, is he? Still, it’s nice to watch the wheels come off Frist ’08 right in front of us; can’t you just hear those donor checkbooks snapping shut? I’m starting to like having him as Senate Leader just as much as I like having DeLay over on the house side, poster children for incompent leadership on the one hand and institutionalized corruption on the other. It’s a pleasure to watch Senator Reid run rings around these bozos. Take note, Cong. Pelosi, and get your side together. In the next election, let’s make Delay a private citizen and Frist the minority leader.

  • Maybe Jeebus Frist shouldn’t have quit his day job. He’s not exactly lighting things up as a majority leader, is he? Still, it’s nice to watch the wheels come off Frist ’08 right in front of us; can’t you just hear those donor checkbooks snapping shut? I’m starting to like having him as Senate Leader just as much as I like having DeLay over on the house side, poster children for incompent leadership on the one hand and institutionalized corruption on the other. It’s a pleasure to watch Senator Reid run rings around these bozos. And the right wing ain’t buying Frist’s schtik either. Sweet.

  • “Reid 08.

    Comment by Mack Padgett — 4/27/2005 @ 1:23 pm”

    No, no, no.

    Reid – SENATE MAJORITY LEADER 08. He’s too good at this to waste on the Presidency. He could be as effective as LBJ was, and seems less corrupt by far than LBJ to boot (and I liked LBJ in spite of his being such an asshole. I’m sorry to say that much of DeLay’s tactics remind me of LBJ — he controls the money).

    Although he has probably been trashed too much by the MSM at this point, “08” IS a long way in the future. There was no lower dog than Nixon at one point, and yet there he was in 1968, so stranger things have happened. So I’m sticking with Howard Dean at this point (I know, I know — he has said he doesn’t intend to run, but you know how that is). I just hope he doesn’t get shot by a “mugger” while riding the bus to some event, something I fear as a distince possibility given his effectiveness and improving image to date.

    Problem/Fear for me: The GOPpers should rightly fear a new Harry Truman backed by an LBJ in the Senate. And — JMO understand — I don’t think they would hesitate to arrange a “mugging” to rid themselves of such a barrier in the future. I’m very sorry to say that I have come to such a thought too. I’ve never been paranoid this way in my 65 years, but Rove et Companie seem capable of ANY lawless action. They truly do. This is the most ruthless and evil Administration in my (to brief) lifetime. I put NOTHING past them.

    Does anyone know if Dean has bodyguards with him on the bus? I’d sure feel better if he did.

    Thank you for your time.

    David Winn
    Austin, Texas

  • “I’ve never been paranoid this way in my 65 years, but Rove et Companie seem capable of ANY lawless action. They truly do. This is the most ruthless and evil Administration in my (to brief) lifetime. I put NOTHING past them.”

    Exactly. “When nothing is forbidden, anything is possible”. Remind you of anybody?

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