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June 02, 2005

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Hey, here's a headline for you: Senate filibuster compromise was Lott's idea, not McCain's.

WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona got much of the credit this week for a deal that ended a bitter partisan debate in the Senate. But the outlines of the deal were really Sen. Trent Lott's idea, according to a spokesman for another senator who helped sell the deal.

And here's a throwaway line that adds nothing to the story, but which was necessary in order to reset TypePad's crazy formatting glitch that would otherwise have blockquoted every comment hereafter. Enjoy!

Makes sense. Frist is REALLY a bozo, isn't he?

But I'm not thrilled the Dems are equally in the pocket of Big Business.

I don't know that it means they're in the pocket of big business. It's more like letting them know that on this issue they're tactical allies, so the Dems don't inadvertantly muck up whatever deals they're cooking up with the Repubs.

I read somewhere this morning that the contributions of business pacs were around 2-1 in favor of the Repubs in 2004, and I'll bet most of those donations to Dems went to entrenched or safe incumbents, and not viable challengers or the party and caucus committees.

Great piece. Trent Lott, before his public whupping, used to want to run for President. If it weren't for some stupid tongue flapping, he'd be so well-positioned to corral business and religious support for '08.

Every senator has home-state business constituents, and every one of 'em needs something nipped or tucked or funded in every session.

That has to be one of the things Reid was counting on with his counterthreats. What was the true balance of high-minded institutionalist motivation versus "business as usual" pressure? If Robert Caro lives to 125, maybe we'll find out!

Know what's best about this piece?

WASHINGTON - If Bill Frist's performance as Senate majority leader the last few weeks is any indication, he would have trouble managing a two-car funeral let alone the vast U.S. government, which apparently is his ultimate goal. Without being too hard on the Tennessee surgeon who President Bush handpicked for his current assignment, it is reasonable to suggest that his skill in the operating theater has not found its way into the political arena.

Frist's ineptness in the struggle over the president's stalled judicial nominees and his non participation in a "compromise" that at least partially cleared the pipeline may have stemmed somewhat from the fact that he is a lame duck leader who has indicated he will not run for reelection two years from now. In political terms, he lacks the clout to punish mavericks.

But a much larger factor in Frist's failure to completely wipe out Democrat opposition to the conservative judicial nominees through the filibuster-ending "nuclear option" probably was the president's own stubbornness in the matter, his refusal to give the beleaguered majority leader the help he needed. Bush showed no inclination to compromise nor apparently did he use his power of personal persuasion on concerned moderates in his own party.

The entire bumbling exercise, exacerbated by the evangelical zeal of the conservatives, points up once again just how difficult it is to reach the White House when one starts from the floor of the U.S. Senate. John F. Kennedy was the only one to make it in the 20th century and that was because he practically ignored the Senate for the four years previous to his election, missing roll call after roll call while his chief opponent for the 1960 Democrat nomination, Lyndon Johnson, was hamstrung by his majority leader duties.

Where it's from.

My original take that the compromise was not a good thing sure is getting a beating. More proof that when it comes to congressional political strategy, I should keep my big mouth shut.

MB -- Jury's still out as far as I'm concerned. But ...

FRIST -> JOIST -> JOUST -> ROUST -> ROAST -> TOAST

... rings true in any reasonable variation.

Look at this!
[url=http://shmoorge.tripod.com/medifast]Medifast. [/url]Medifast.

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