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Senator Frist Tightens the Screws
NY Times ^ | November 27, 2004 | MEATHEAD EDITORIAL

Posted on 11/26/2004 10:34:31 PM PST by neverdem

Flexing their new muscles, Congressional Republicans seem intent on reigning as a dissent-smothering monolith. First, House G.O.P. members slavishly obeyed the maneuver by Tom DeLay, the majority leader, to render his control of the caucus ethics-proof by making it possible for a party leader to keep his post even if he is under indictment. His counterpart in the Senate, Bill Frist, was more discreet but no less ham-handed. He has engineered a rules change designed to cow the few Republican moderates who may still be willing to nip back at demands for party fealty.

The rule undercuts members' independence by giving Dr. Frist the power to fill the first two vacancies on all committees. This hobbles seniority, which has been the traditional path to power. The leader now has a cudgel for shaping the "world's greatest deliberative body" into a chorus line. Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, chronic Republican maverick, got to the heart of the matter in skewering her leader's accomplishment: "There is only one reason for that change, and it is to punish people."

Toadying, of course, would avoid punishment. (Senator Arlen Specter's flirtation with independence already seems shaken by anti-abortion zealots.) Yet in a perverse way, this hubris by the Senate's more potent conservative bloc compounds the value of any dissent. The rule may even brace moderates to stand faster against extreme G.O.P. initiatives.

But nastiness is in the air as the new Congress limbers up. Democrats vow to never forget Dr. Frist's foray into South Dakota to help unhorse his counterpart, Tom Daschle, the minority leader, whose farewell speech was boycotted by a victorious, decidedly unsentimental majority. Dr. Frist, who many expect to run for president next time, seems beyond the range of minority Democrats, but not G.O.P. moderates seething at the rules change.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: Maine; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: billfrist; cluelessness; democratinsanity; diaperload; frist; olympiasnowe; senate; snowe
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With this MEATHEAD EDITORIAL, I think the good doctor found a good remedy.
1 posted on 11/26/2004 10:34:31 PM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem
Somehow I don't recall the Times praising Zell Miller's "independence" and "dissent."
2 posted on 11/26/2004 10:37:30 PM PST by denydenydeny
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To: neverdem
So... Does this mean that we all send Senator Frist the biggest screwdrivers we can find for Christmas?
3 posted on 11/26/2004 10:39:22 PM PST by InABunkerUnderSF (Happy Thanksgiving All.)
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To: neverdem
Its funny hearing the New York Times lecture Republicans on the need to allow differing views to be heard in their party. Just when Pinch Sulzberger shoved Bill Safire out of the door. The paper is top-heavy with liberals but that's not considered a threat to free expression. A party that wants to give conservatives their due, that's called "tighten[ing] the screws." Liberals are such big advocates of tolerance. As long as every one agrees with them.
4 posted on 11/26/2004 10:44:53 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: neverdem

NYT does not approve,RINOS are miffed...sounds good to me!


5 posted on 11/26/2004 10:45:04 PM PST by nothernlights
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To: neverdem
Flexing their new muscles, Congressional Republicans seem intent on reigning as a dissent-smothering monolith.

Those Dems can dish it out, but they sure can't take it! Go Sen. Frist!!

6 posted on 11/26/2004 10:46:33 PM PST by SuziQ (W STILL the President)
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To: neverdem

You know that we are are on target with our knives when the NY Times squeals thusly.

7 posted on 11/26/2004 10:49:22 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: neverdem
Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, chronic Republican maverick, got to the heart of the matter in skewering her leader's accomplishment: "There is only one reason for that change, and it is to punish people."

Snowe & the NYT's are unhappy? WooHoo!! Well done Mr. Frist!

Good news from Congress and the House tonight.

8 posted on 11/26/2004 10:50:26 PM PST by Soul Seeker
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To: neverdem

Slowly, but surely, those guys are growing nuts. I really do wonder about the patience of the women those guys hang around with. They are just too slow making a decision. A few less dinner parties would do well.


9 posted on 11/26/2004 10:54:52 PM PST by BobS
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To: Southack

pleasingly so....I'm proud of Frist...surprises me a bit.

is DeLay coaching him on how to be tough even if you look like a ...well....like a cardiologist..lol (i'm of course very fond of cardiologists as you might well imagine)

DeLay looks like what he is...a sportin fella....like Dubya for that matter.

I still love the way W waded into the Chile dust up....a bit risky to be sure but very real....and honest....a regular hombre.


10 posted on 11/26/2004 11:01:25 PM PST by wardaddy
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To: neverdem
(Senator Arlen Specter's flirtation with independence already seems shaken by anti-abortion zealots.)

Is that what they call his warning to the president, on the president's election victory. Also, I have never heard the term "pro-abortion zealots".

11 posted on 11/26/2004 11:03:42 PM PST by Moorings
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To: neverdem

Frist must have burglarized Hillary's office and stolen a set.


12 posted on 11/26/2004 11:04:46 PM PST by MediaMole
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To: neverdem

I hope Frist starts to act like the leader of a Majority Party -- learn from Hastert.

Hastert Launches A Partisan Policy

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1289172/posts


13 posted on 11/26/2004 11:05:43 PM PST by FairOpinion (Merry Christmas Season!)
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To: neverdem
Congressional Republicans seem intent on reigning as a dissent-smothering monolith.

And heaven knows that Democrats never did this sort of thing when they had the majority! ROTFLOL!

The NY Slimes doesn't even bother with even the pretense of impartiality. They're all pink...right down to their underwear.

14 posted on 11/26/2004 11:05:43 PM PST by Prime Choice (I like Democrats, too. Let's exchange recipes.)
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To: neverdem
Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, chronic Republican maverick,

...was appointed the coveted position of Head Senate Librarian.

LVM

15 posted on 11/26/2004 11:07:41 PM PST by LasVegasMac (If it ain't smoked, it ain't worth puttin' on the table!)
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To: neverdem
Democrats vow to never forget Dr. Frist's foray into South Dakota to help unhorse his counterpart, Tom Daschle, the minority leader

Just like Repubs will not soon forget the blatantly political obstruction that Daschle engineered for the last four years.
16 posted on 11/26/2004 11:07:45 PM PST by oldbrowser (You lost the election.....................Get over it.)
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To: neverdem
This hobbles seniority, which has been the traditional path to power.

This is why liberals run-and-get elected as republicans in liberal states...and continue to get elected as republicans in those liberal states. seniority should not be the primary criteria... ever.

17 posted on 11/26/2004 11:12:38 PM PST by sayfer bullets
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To: denydenydeny
Somehow I don't recall the Times praising Zell Miller's "independence" and "dissent."

The first thought that crossed my mind when I read the part about Olympia Snowe was, "I wonder if the New York Times ever referred to Senator Miller as a "maverick"?

18 posted on 11/26/2004 11:14:13 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: SuziQ

This is the prelude to the old,"Now we're gonna' change the cloture rules" , two step, which is a prelude to the opening strings of , "Here Comes The JUDGES". Maybe I have been a little to hard on Frist. He is definately getting the message that "you gotta' beat the man to be the man".


19 posted on 11/26/2004 11:15:51 PM PST by ping jockey (We must not let Dan Blather off the hook.NEVER FORGET)
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To: wardaddy

The Left's pundits think that Rove is behind the Frist/Bush crusade. The Left's political insiders think that DeLay is behind it.

The truth of the matter is that Frist was chosen to replace Lott because the Republican leadership was and is mad at the one-sided anti-GOP news media coverage that lets the Democrats attack our guys for the slightest misstep (Lott told a one-line joke, once, at a birthday party for Thurmond, and that cost him his job)...and because Frist was the meanest, smartest Senator with Republican seniority.

And this really follows the grassroots pattern that we've seen since 1994. Our country keeps electing harder-Right politicians, in ever-larger numbers, year after year for the past decade.

You know, pre-9/11, back in 2000, GWB was the most Right Presidential candidate who could have possibly been elected at that time.

Now our nation has moved far enough to the Right that you actually hear the far Right bashing Bush for sometimes not being conservative and cowboy-enough!

Man, the voters of America today would have labeled President Nixon as a freaking left-wing Rino with his opening up of China, founding the EPA, wage and price controls, pulling out of Vietnam, etc... yet until GWB came along, Nixon was regarded as the farthest to the Right that an elected American President could get!

This trend will only get better. The Baby Boom generation is 4 years from being old enough to get Social Security, and each year more and more of them are becoming first time grandparents (the *most* conservative demographic age).

Technology will show that mothers are carrying babies, not tissue, so abortion will be killed off as a Democratic position (pun intended), and Democrats have already given up on gun control after we've handed them ten straight years of defeats over that point.

So on isssue after issue, the Right stands to win, win, and win again and again and again.

...And Americans like winners. The more that the Right wins, the more Americans will join our side. It's a self-reinforcing cycle.

Life is good.

20 posted on 11/26/2004 11:16:30 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: neverdem
Democrats vow to never forget Dr. Frist's foray into South Dakota to help unhorse his counterpart, Tom Daschle, the minority leader, whose farewell speech was boycotted by a victorious, decidedly unsentimental majority.

That's good I'm rather sure the Republicans don't want the DUmmies to forget it either.

At least they got one thing right, it's Dr. Frist, who has done more for the good of mankind than the New York Times could ever dream of doing. He travels to Africa regularly and performs free heart transplants, I supose the Slimes thinks he's Dr. Mengela practicing on natives or something.

21 posted on 11/26/2004 11:17:37 PM PST by Mister Baredog ((DO IT NOW, if you haven't put up a flag on your FR homepage yet,PLEASE))
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To: neverdem

MEATHEAD? SHIITE HEAD is more like it.


22 posted on 11/26/2004 11:18:33 PM PST by little jeremiah (Moral absolutes are what make humans human.)
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To: MediaMole
Frist must have burglarized Hillary's office and stolen a set.

Lockbox and all? Well, until I see a filibuster-free series of presidential nominee votes, I'm not hiding the purdee wimmen.

23 posted on 11/26/2004 11:19:11 PM PST by AndrewC (New Senate rule -- Must vote on all Presidential appointments period certain.)
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To: neverdem
What the Republicans have discovered (finally) is that old media dinosaurs like the New York Times and broadcast news organizations (CBS, ABC, NBC, etc.) no longer control the agenda by controlling the selection, dissemination, and meaning of the "news". One cannot underestimate the value of this realization by many (and perhaps most) Republicans.

It's a new world order out there in Media Land.

24 posted on 11/26/2004 11:20:41 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: FairOpinion

Thanks for the link.


25 posted on 11/26/2004 11:22:40 PM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: InABunkerUnderSF
Nah. Doc Frist can -- and will -- screw it up all by himself.

Only thing that this boy knows about either spine or balls he learned in anatomy class. If then.

Good luck to all our FReepers here who think that Frist is anything but a cave-in pantywaist.

26 posted on 11/26/2004 11:25:39 PM PST by SAJ
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To: oldbrowser
"Democrats vow to never forget Dr. Frist's foray into South Dakota to help unhorse his counterpart, Tom Daschle, the minority leader."

You're damn skippy. We won't let you forget. Look out, we're coming to get'cha in '06!

27 posted on 11/26/2004 11:27:44 PM PST by buzzsaw6 (Major, USAF/Scoutmaster)
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To: goldstategop
Just when Pinch Sulzberger shoved Bill Safire out of the door.

Yup, two right of center members of the commentariat are one too many. It was interesting that Safire substituted for Brooks on PBS's Newshour while Brooks made the transition from the Weekly Standard to the so called "paper of record".

28 posted on 11/26/2004 11:29:27 PM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: Moorings
Is that what they call his warning to the president, on the president's election victory. Also, I have never heard the term "pro-abortion zealots".

I've more than a few times heard democrats use the phrase "anti-choice." They try to make pro-lifers sound as bad as they can. How'd they like it if republicans referred to them as "anti-life"? I think they'd scream bloody murder!

29 posted on 11/26/2004 11:30:35 PM PST by gop_gene
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To: neverdem
If all leadership positions were filled by seniority, Robert 'Sheets' Byrd and Teddy the Swimmer would be leading the Democratic Minority.

The Times should be thankful.

So9

30 posted on 11/26/2004 11:31:33 PM PST by Servant of the 9 (Trust Me)
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To: All

I do miss the days when there were conservative Dems. We still have liberal Repubs so I wish them well but want to see the conservative Dems again. Aligning the Senate on liberal vs conservative will only help our side so there's not anything to lose here. We have Republicans trying to figure how to be a majority and Dems trying to figure how to be opposition and not continue to lose seats. Right now I see Frist as moving to advance the majority agenda. Hopefully we won't need this strong of a whip as we progress.


31 posted on 11/26/2004 11:35:04 PM PST by byteback
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To: neverdem

bump


32 posted on 11/27/2004 12:28:40 AM PST by TASMANIANRED (Free the Fallujah one.)
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To: Southack

placemark


33 posted on 11/27/2004 3:56:11 AM PST by Maigrey (Your job is to arrest the killers but if you kill them, then so be it. - Minister Allawi)
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To: neverdem
Democrats vow to never forget Dr. Frist's foray into South Dakota to help unhorse his counterpart, Tom Daschle, the minority leader, whose farewell speech was boycotted by a victorious, decidedly unsentimental majority.

The Slimes is trying out a new approach to news: comedy.

I guess it's working 'cause I'm laughing...
34 posted on 11/27/2004 4:11:19 AM PST by George W. Bush
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To: goldstategop; neverdem

Pinchie's paper is losing circulation already. Wouldn't it be funny if half the subscribers only take it because of Safire?


35 posted on 11/27/2004 4:13:07 AM PST by Sal
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To: Sal

I am taking great delight in this editorial. The NYT sees the handwriting on the wall and can only lash out by name calling. I must have missed the boycott of Daschle's farewell address. That fact alone brought a smile to my face.


36 posted on 11/27/2004 4:29:15 AM PST by babaloo
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To: neverdem
"Dr. Frist, who many expect to run for president next time,"

The NYT is unraveling -- they can't even use proper grammar. Should have been "whom" not "who."

Carolyn

37 posted on 11/27/2004 4:38:08 AM PST by CDHart
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To: neverdem

Blah blah, yada yada, bulls**t bulls**t.

Didn't hear 'em squawking and whining like this when the Democrats ran things into the ground with an iron fist. They just can't STAND it when it's our turn to enact legislation; they just HATE it.

It's all about power, folks. The louder the left whines and cries, the happier I am. I just love it.


38 posted on 11/27/2004 4:42:46 AM PST by RightOnline
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To: neverdem

Can it actually get any better than this? I have been around quite awhile and this is as much post-election fun as I have ever had. The libs are in absolute free-fall.


39 posted on 11/27/2004 4:46:35 AM PST by InterceptPoint
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To: neverdem
His counterpart in the Senate, Bill Frist, was more discreet but no less ham-handed.

He has engineered a rules change designed to cow the few Republican moderates who may still be willing to nip back at demands for party fealty.

I seem to remember how the scurvy Clinton shut the government down when he could not make the Repubs do his bidding.

Screw these liberal cry babies(Rhinos and Dems alike)and let them bleed!

40 posted on 11/27/2004 4:53:57 AM PST by VOYAGER
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To: neverdem

Them Dim-loving commie pinkos hate it when their evil schemes are thwarted.


41 posted on 11/27/2004 5:14:29 AM PST by trebb (Ain't God good . . .)
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To: neverdem
The first sentence: Flexing their new muscles, Congressional Republicans seem intent on reigning as a dissent-smothering monolith.

Ah hahahahahah!!!

42 posted on 11/27/2004 5:17:54 AM PST by ovrtaxt ("Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing". -- Redd Foxx)
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To: SAJ
It makes me furious that now that Bill Frist is no longer in a position to need my vote, he is finally getting some backbone. Unfortunately there is no way to know how someone will behave once that they are elected. Al Gore fooled me to, as I voted for him for Senator twice.
43 posted on 11/27/2004 6:07:48 AM PST by Coldwater Creek ('We voted like we prayed")
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To: babaloo
Daschle's address is noted here, as is his appeal to find common ground. What is not mentioned is his idea of common ground-- like obstructing the promotional appointment of Judge Janice Brown, a capable African-American woman who was elected to her post on the California Supreme Court by 70%, to the federal appeals court.
44 posted on 11/27/2004 6:09:58 AM PST by Vigilanteman (crime would drop like a sprung trapdoor if we brought back good old-fashioned hangings)
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To: neverdem

This spells good news for a filibuster rules change.

It also HINTS that Frist is expecting the new committees to add TWO Republican members instead of one. Could that be true!!?

Judiciary is now 10-9 based on a Senate that is 51-48-1. A 3 vote lead translates to a 1 vote difference in committee.

The new senate will be 55-44-1....an 11 vote lead for the Pubs. If Frist adds 2, then that would make a 3 vote lead in Judiciary (and others) for a 12-7 Judiciary committee.

That show real guts on Frist's part. It also means that Specter's vote in Judiciary is insignificant.


45 posted on 11/27/2004 6:13:01 AM PST by xzins (Retired Army and Proud of It!)
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To: denydenydeny
Somehow I don't recall the Times praising Zell Miller's "independence" and "dissent."

LOL - great point.

46 posted on 11/27/2004 6:13:26 AM PST by Zack Nguyen
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To: neverdem
Democrats vow to never forget Dr. Frist's foray into South Dakota to help unhorse his counterpart, Tom Daschle...

They'll "never forget"? A Republican campaigning against a Democrat?! Oh the horror! My gosh, next we'll have both parties raising lots of money to campaign against one another!

47 posted on 11/27/2004 6:14:53 AM PST by Zack Nguyen
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To: neverdem

Gee, I guess the editorialist is upset that seniority can be replaced by ability, responsibility and accountability. Dat boy must be from da Dade County Dum club!


48 posted on 11/27/2004 6:20:39 AM PST by -=Wing_0_Walker=-
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To: neverdem

This is the Liberal spiel at its best. I have seen this on C-Span and all the so called "Mainstream Media" and the important facts that are left out is such:
The rule they speak of only applied to the Republicans and the Democrats do not have any such rule.It was done to keep a well known partial Democrat prosecutor in Texas from destroying Delay by indicting him. It is an absolute fact a prosecutor under our system can indict a "Ham Sandwich" and the Democrats have been headed off at the pass.
On top of this bunch Criminals in Congress into any search engine and see how many you come up with.
The liberal left makes it a habit to tell only the part of the story they want heard and unfortunately a number of people believe these liars and take them at face value.
I have no problem with Delay stepping down if convicted but the Democrats still parade their most famous criminal in front of America daily with the help of the so called "Mainstream Media" and its Dan Rathers!


49 posted on 11/27/2004 6:25:18 AM PST by gunnedah
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To: neverdem

Frist for president.

I've already picked my primary campaign candidate.


50 posted on 11/27/2004 6:32:46 AM PST by xzins (Retired Army and Proud of It!)
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