{"id":4241,"date":"2005-05-19T11:29:28","date_gmt":"2005-05-19T15:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4241.html"},"modified":"2005-05-19T11:29:28","modified_gmt":"2005-05-19T15:29:28","slug":"frist-things-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/frist-things-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Frist things first"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not convinced that the New York Daily News is the most reliable outlet in the country, but this anecdote<\/a>, if true, is of the utmost importance right now:<\/p>\n

Some Republicans at the White House and on Capitol Hill aren’t sold that Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has the 50 senators needed to change the Senate’s rules and end filibusters on judges. <\/p>\n

“That’s what we keep hearing: that Frist doesn’t have the votes,” said one well-informed GOP aide. “If he doesn’t have the votes, then that will force him into some sort of agreement.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the biggest political test of Frist’s career and he’s quickly running out of options. This GOP aide told the Daily News that Frist may have to strike a compromise, but that’s not really an option any more. Harry Reid offered him some pretty sweet deals in the past couple of weeks and Frist turned them all down for a reason: the far-right base won’t accept anything less than total victory. It’s why Frist and Reid aren’t even negotiating anymore.<\/p>\n

Frist would have gone “nuclear” well before now if he had the support he needs, which tells us he didn’t have the votes before and he may very well not have them now. The already-thin ice, in other words, is starting to crack.
\n
\nIf Frist brings the nuclear option to the floor and fails, his ability to lead is effectively over. He’ll have taken on the biggest risk for a Senate Majority Leader in recent history and, despite 55 Republican lawmakers in his caucus and the enthusiastic<\/strike> rabid support of the party base, Frist will have failed spectacularly. He’s already a lame-duck leader, but if the nuclear-option strategy falls apart, Frist may have to give up his leadership post.<\/p>\n

Frist also can’t stall; the GOP base has told him in no uncertain terms that it’s now or never<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What about the possible six-by-six compromise, you ask? That, too, would be a disaster for Frist, not only because it would represent the failure of his nuclear-option strategy, but also because it would circumvent him altogether<\/a>. The buzz is the deal isn’t going to happen anyway, but if it does, it’s the worst of all worlds for Frist — the filibuster rule remains in tact, nominees get left behind, and his leadership looks inept. (I’m opposed to the six-by-six deal, but the humiliation it would bring Frist makes it look a little better in my eyes.)<\/p>\n

A lot of people forget this, but Bill Frist was, at first, a nuclear-option skeptic. Until last July<\/a>, Frist didn’t think the plan would work and worried about the effect it would have on the Senate’s ability to function. Then he became Majority Leader, followed by the decision to run for president, followed by the realization that he had to keep the far-right happy. It’s been downhill for the guy ever since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not convinced that the New York Daily News is the most reliable outlet in the country, but this anecdote, if true, is of the utmost importance right now: Some Republicans at the White House and on Capitol Hill aren’t sold that Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has the 50 senators needed to change the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}