Bill Frist: Snatching Defeat From The Jaws of Victory

Installing Bushbot Bill Frist, an MD who thinks he can disgnose people using a VIDEOTAPE, as the Senate Majority Leader back in 2002 must have seemed a good idea as long as Bush's approval ratings were high and he could mindlessly keep their legislation sailing along, rubber stamps in both hands. Once Bush cratered, however, having someone this weak and this strategically impotent in charge has certainly backfired.

Mcjoan at Kos shows us that Frist is insisting on sandbagging the only bill on military tribunals with bipartisan and overwhelming support:

The sharp rhetoric of last week was replaced yesterday by softer language from both the Bush administration and the three Republican senators leading the opposition to its proposals: Warner, John McCain (Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.).

But Frist struck a more jarring tone, telling reporters that the trio's bill is unacceptable despite its majority support.

For a bill to pass, Frist said, "it's got to preserve our intelligence programs," including the CIA's aggressive interrogation techniques, and it must "protect classified information from terrorists." He said that "the president's bill achieves those two goals" but that "the Warner-McCain-Graham bill falls short."

Frist went so far as to suggest he would FILIBUSTER any detainee legislation (whatever happened to "upperdownvote!") that in any way deviates from what the President wants.

You know, I was getting a little dispirited that the whole tribunal/torture thing was showing the country that Republicans are perfectly capable of stopping Bush all by themselves, thereby negating the "Had Enough" rubber stamp argument. Then, in comes Bill Frist to make things right and provide said rubber stamp and make the choice oh-so-clear.

I feel much better now.