A close look at the Senate Majority Leader

By Paul M. Weyrich
web posted August 4, 2003

I can't think of when I have disagreed with my friend Sen. Jim
Inhofe (R-Ok.). He is perhaps the most principled conservative
to have served in the Senate in recent times. Senator Larry Craig
(R-Id.) is another good friend. He was, until recently, in the
leadership and often fought for the conservative cause, even
when he had to go against the then Majority Leader to do so.

The two of them, along with Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wy.), took
strong issue with Majority Leader Bill Frist's leadership on the
energy bill. What was even more disappointing is that they chose
to air their differences with Frist in the Capitol Hill newspaper
Roll Call. First of all they spoke too soon. They insisted that by
bringing up judicial nominations there would not be an energy bill
until after September, and then maybe none at all. Late July 31st,
the Senate passed an energy bill 85-14. It is a deeply flawed bill,
but the Senate leader really wanted to pass a bill so a
Conference Committee between the House and the Senate can
now re-write it to favor more of Inhofe's and Craig's views. That
would not have been possible with the bill that was pending.
Democrats of the Obstructionist Party filed more than 400
amendments to the energy bill. They didn't want any bill at all.
Instead, Frist took up the energy bill that had passed the Senate
when Democrats were in control. It passed with that lopsided
vote and now the Conference Committee will do its work.

Meanwhile Sen. Frist, who has a remarkable grasp of the big
picture, forced the Democrats to vote again on judges,
demonstrating that the Obstructionist Party is ready to filibuster
an ever-expanding list of brilliant Bush nominees to the Courts of
Appeal. This is something many of us on the outside pleaded
with the Majority Leader to do. Unlike so many times in the past
when our pleas were completely ignored, Frist continued to
move ahead. He understands that to make any headway on the
judicial nominations, the movement needed those votes. They
will be a major theme played out on talk radio, various websites
and in newsletters of all kinds during the August recess. Tom
Daschle, the leader of the Obstructionist Party in the Senate,
immediately took to the floor of the Senate and read the Roll
Call article where Inhofe, Craig and Thomas were critical of
Frist's leadership. Fine if they disagreed. I'm sure the Majority
Leader would have found time to see these Senators. They could
have read the riot act to Frist if they were so inclined. But to use
a paper which is no friend of conservatives in order to be critical
of their leader, it seems, was unwise, and as it turned out,
unnecessary.

Moving beyond the flap over the energy bill, I have been
pleasantly surprised with Senator Frist as Majority Leader. As I
told him, I was prepared not to like him. Given that he was
pushed for that position by some of the Senate's least
conservative members, I thought Frist was a stalking horse for
them. He is not. He is his own man. Of course I don't agree with
him on everything, but as a whole, he has been a decided
improvement over his predecessor who has been a friend of
mine for 35 years. He is tough, yet reasonable. He understands
that good principles make good politics. His experience as a
renowned heart surgeon gives him a perspective which few in the
Senate have. He didn't get to be Senator by holding every other
office in the state first. He went directly from the hospital to
another sick institution, the U.S. Senate.

Frist has a profound sense of optimism, not a silly optimism that
ignores reality, but an optimism that is based on the notion that
God is in control. To my surprise I have learned, since getting to
know him better, that Frist is a very prayerful man. With the
Senator, family is paramount. When Frist strongly endorsed the
Federal Marriage Amendment, the media claimed it was some
cynical ploy on Frist's part to gain points with the right so he
could compromise on other things. It is no cynical ploy. It is what
Frist believes. The Senate Majority Leader, who has but a one-
vote margin in the Senate, has still brought a sense of hope to the
majority party that things can actually be done.
 
I am sure there will come a day when I have to take strong issue
with Leader Frist. In the meantime, I thank God he is there. In
the big picture, this leader has a grasp of things that no other
Republican leader has had since the late Sen. Everett Dirksen
(R-Il.), who died in 1969. Dirksen on occasion sold out
conservatives. Thus far I am pleased to note that I can't say the
same about Frist.

Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress
Foundation.

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